Why Do Entrepreneurs Stay Stuck and How Can Community Help? | Jennifer Kornoely

PROFITABLE TALKS...

What happens when women stop learning alone and start growing together?

In this episode, we explore how community-driven learning, financial literacy, and shared experience can transform not only your business—but your identity as an entrepreneur. Jennifer Kornoely, founder of She Reads, She Leads, breaks down how reading, conversation, and accountability create real-world growth for women building businesses and navigating life.

PROFITABLE TAKEAWAYS...

• Why reading alone is not enough—and how community accelerates learning
• How financial literacy and business knowledge impact long-term independence
• The real reason many entrepreneurs stay stuck (and how to break out of it)
• How to build a scalable business that doesn’t rely on trading time for money
• Why accountability and “skin in the game” change how people show up

Join our community of creative entrepreneurs and get a free copy of our No-BS Guide To Making Your Creative Business Actually Profitable delivered straight to your inbox. We’ll share smart, simple tips to help you keep more of what you earn—no boring accountant talk, we promise.  
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Transcript

Christian Brim (00:01.434)
Welcome to another episode of the Profitable Creative, the only place on the interwebs where you will learn how to turn your...

The only place on the interwebs where you will learn how to turn your passion into profit. I am your host, Christian Brim. Special shout out to our one listener in Sylvania, Ohio. That's an odd name. Sounds kind of like Transylvania. I don't know. Anyway, thank you for listening. Joining me today, Jennifer Cornoli of She Reads, She Leads. Welcome to the show, Jennifer.

Jennifer Kornoely (00:35.896)
Thank you so much for having me.

Christian Brim (00:38.767)
I'm sorry. I'm just thinking about what I used to remember your name and that's just not appropriate to repeat. tell us about she reads, she leads. I'm curious having two daughters.

Jennifer Kornoely (00:54.52)
Yeah. So, my background is actually in photography and specifically real estate photography. So my days would be spent in empty houses by myself, not talking to anyone. And I would be listening to audio books. And I really liked to start, I started when I started doing audio books, I started listening to personal finance because I figured that's an area I'm lacking knowledge in. let's buff up on that. And then it just sort of evolved into.

Christian Brim (01:07.314)
Mmm.

Christian Brim (01:22.118)
Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Kornoely (01:24.642)
more business and finance books because I wanted to grow my business, but I had no idea what I was doing. I had the photography skillset, but I didn't have any business skillset. So I'm like, there's gotta be other women that feel this way who have either started a side hustle or are trying to make money while raising kids at home who don't understand the business aspect of it. And I would be talking to friends and especially when I started with the personal finance books about

Christian Brim (01:27.154)
Okay.

Christian Brim (01:47.143)
Mmm.

Jennifer Kornoely (01:52.238)
things like investing and saving and retirement funds. And they were like, how do you know all this? I'm like, I'm reading books. And so I figured there's gotta be a niche for this, having conversations with women about the things we don't know yet, whether it's we were raised in an environment where we're not having these conversations or whatever the reason. So I started reaching out to other women on like LinkedIn and

Christian Brim (01:59.431)
Hmm.

Jennifer Kornoely (02:19.392)
other in-person networking groups and was like, hey, who out here is a reader? Who wants to start reading some nonfiction and who wants to talk about it? And I got a lot of response. Like a lot of women were like, yeah, I'm a reader, but I've only ever read fiction, but I would love to learn more about the money side or the business side. So about a year and a half ago, we just started, hey, let's vote on some books. Let's set up a Zoom.

Christian Brim (02:34.425)
Right.

Jennifer Kornoely (02:45.804)
and let's start having these conversations. And it's been really great because when women learn in community, the conversations are very different than just reading the book on your own.

Christian Brim (02:55.556)
Yes, I'm kind of envious of my wife because she's always involved in the book club, right? And I never get invited. None of none of my friends have book clubs. I guess I know men are men are simple creatures. They're really not interested in in that. No football, soccer, baseball, beer. You know, again, we're simple creatures.

Jennifer Kornoely (03:07.436)
You should start your own for the men.

Christian Brim (03:25.298)
So many things running through my head. Excuse me, good Lord. I shouldn't have had a bite of that RX bar. First thing that came to mind, Vern Harnish, author of Scaling Up, Rockefeller Habits, I was in a room with him with another, I don't know, 50 entrepreneurs and he asked them,

How many of them read business books and about a third raised their hands. And these are all accomplished entrepreneurs. These are not startups. These are tenured entrepreneurs. And he looked at the rest of them and he said, you might as well be illiterate. And I was like, Oh, that was pretty harsh. Um, I mean, I raised my hand, so I, you know, it wasn't directed at me, but as I was thinking about it, I mean, like he's not wrong.

Jennifer Kornoely (03:59.278)
Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Kornoely (04:10.508)
that's harsh.

Christian Brim (04:20.91)
you know, if, if you're not reading as a business owner, you're not growing your skillset and, man, man or woman, you need to be reading. the second thing was you were talking about growing up in, where those discussions were happening and my, children probably have PTSD because I made them play, cashflow for kids.

Jennifer Kornoely (04:28.791)
Yeah.

Christian Brim (04:50.054)
and told my daughter to work when she was a teenager to make her shadow me. But I understand that's not normal. Most people, myself included, grew up without financial education in the home, and it's not in the schools.

Jennifer Kornoely (05:01.034)
No, it's not.

Jennifer Kornoely (05:10.028)
Yeah.

Mm-mm. I think that's very intentional too,

Christian Brim (05:15.366)
Hmm. Hmm. Conspiracy theory.

Jennifer Kornoely (05:16.588)
I mean, if everyone, maybe not so conspiracy conspiracy theory, but like if everyone had great financial literacy, if everyone understood like the benefits of tax loopholes or an unlimited earning potential by starting your own business, there would be nobody willing to work in a grocery store. There'd be nobody willing to work in a gas station or those kind of beginner jobs that are lower.

Christian Brim (05:21.071)
Okay, okay.

Christian Brim (05:30.321)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (05:40.146)
Mm.

Jennifer Kornoely (05:46.958)
I don't want to say lower skill because I mean, you need, everyone needs skills, but sort of those entry level jobs, nobody would be willing to work them if you came out of high school ready to start a million dollar business and knew how to do that.

Christian Brim (06:00.698)
Yes, I mean, I think there's certainly a dearth of entrepreneurial education in the system. Even these, these programs that have developed at university, I'm not a hundred percent convinced that they're really hitting the mark because there's, think that, I think the thing about being an entrepreneur is there's, there's a lot of head knowledge that you can have, but there's

Jennifer Kornoely (06:17.678)
Yeah.

Christian Brim (06:29.138)
you've got to experience it, right? And you've got to go out there and say, okay, how do I actually apply what was in that book? Well,

Jennifer Kornoely (06:31.651)
Yeah.

Jennifer Kornoely (06:37.772)
Yeah. And you need to be having conversations with people. I think that's the biggest, like over like any kind of university education or MBA program, that's going to be the defining factor is like if you're operating within community and networking with others and building connections and asking questions, that's what's going to earn you the entrepreneurial knowledge.

Christian Brim (06:42.694)
Well yeah.

Christian Brim (07:01.298)
Yes, 100 % if you plug into a group of peers as an entrepreneur that is willing to be vulnerable and have conversations and there is safety in that group that nobody's going to share your shit. You know, that's a tremendous

Jennifer Kornoely (07:16.782)
Yeah.

Christian Brim (07:29.522)
learning experience, listening to other people's experiences. I'm huge on experience share. not I'm not very much on giving advice. know, professional advice. Yes, you asked me questions about accounting, finance, taxes, whatever. But, you know, more big ideas like entrepreneurship or life or parenting or whatever, I find.

that advice is oftentimes ignored. I'm speaking from my own experience. You ask someone's, or you tell somebody your situation is, well, this is what I would do. Usually, you don't listen to it. And if you do adopt the advice, you're either going to succeed with the advice.

Jennifer Kornoely (08:09.069)
Yeah.

Christian Brim (08:28.508)
but you've not learned anything because you didn't make the decision or it's going to fail and you're going to blame them rather than understanding again what you don't know, right? And I find this experience share to be much more insightful because then it requires you to do your own work and say, hmm, okay, how do I apply that to my situation? What about you?

Jennifer Kornoely (08:30.446)
Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Kornoely (08:37.518)
Sure.

Jennifer Kornoely (08:53.857)
Yeah.

Jennifer Kornoely (08:57.718)
Yeah, I definitely get that. When we're having conversations like discussing our books, a lot of it comes down to that experience share or I took this out of the book because, and someone will tell a story on how it relates to their life, or I struggled with this part because. And just hearing how other people are absorbing the information or applying the information, it does kind of change your perspective on it. It's never, the discussions are never from a point of

Christian Brim (09:08.892)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (09:14.492)
Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Kornoely (09:27.17)
This is what the book's about. This is how I feel you should apply it. It's more just your own stories on how you're applying it or why you should feel like you should apply it within your own life.

Christian Brim (09:30.19)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Christian Brim (09:41.68)
You said you listened to books. When Audible came out, I signed up and I listened to several books. And just strictly speaking from a nonfiction standpoint where I was trying to learn something, I didn't feel like I absorbed it as well listening to it as reading it. But that may just be my learning style. What have you observed?

Jennifer Kornoely (09:43.714)
Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Kornoely (10:01.71)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Jennifer Kornoely (10:07.662)
Well, a lot of it is because I spend so much time both in the car and you know out shooting and just by myself I have just Logistically, I'm able to listen compared to I'm not at home as much where I'm able to have the physical book but there's so there's something called like the learning pyramid and if you are just taking something in whether it's Looking at it through your eyes or listening to it with yours or just through one audio visual sense

Christian Brim (10:17.913)
Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Kornoely (10:36.44)
you're only retaining about 10 to 20 % of the information. When you start adding in other forms, like I'm listening to it, but I'm also looking at the book and following along and underlining as I go, you're gonna start retaining more information. As soon as you start having a conversation about that content, now you're retaining about 50 % of that information. Add in implementing and then teaching, you're retaining 70 to 90 % of that information. So the more sort of senses you include in

Christian Brim (10:39.25)
Hmm.

you

Christian Brim (10:48.379)
Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Kornoely (11:05.814)
your reading journey, the more you're going to get out of that book.

Christian Brim (11:11.93)
I love that. And I love that you added teaching because I find any, any knowledge transfer, is greatly empowered by teaching, even if you're not, you know, an expert on it. Like, you know, you, you can read a book and then try to teach it to someone else that ensures that you've truly, synthesized the information. if you can explain it to others.

Jennifer Kornoely (11:23.089)
yeah.

Jennifer Kornoely (11:26.562)
Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Kornoely (11:36.856)
Yeah.

Yeah, it like forces your brain to work in a different way because like you'll read a book, say it's something complex, some math or investing, and you're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I got that, I got that. Because you have sort of the Cliff Notes version living in your head. But as soon as you have to translate that to something intelligible that somebody else will also understand, you change how you have absorbed it for sure.

Christian Brim (11:52.07)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (11:58.477)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (12:04.048)
Yeah. So you don't have any education background.

Jennifer Kornoely (12:08.704)
As in being an educator? No. I have, I'm overly educated with the student loan still to prove it, but no, as an educator, no.

Christian Brim (12:10.49)
Yes. Okay.

Ha ha ha.

Christian Brim (12:20.86)
So it sounds though like you have picked up some of that through your reading, I assume, in this process of she reads, leaves.

Jennifer Kornoely (12:31.692)
Yeah, for sure. But also just learning how to network better has changed the way I have conversations with other people about business and about how it integrates into their real life. I think less so, mean, absorbing the knowledge from the books has been great in changing the trajectory of all the things I do. But building the community has definitely come from

building a networking group and participating in both business networking and just personal groups, things like that. We don't live in a vacuum. So as you improve yourself in one way, you're going to improve yourself in other ways.

Christian Brim (13:03.376)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (13:17.36)
I love that. How has starting this group affected your photography business?

Jennifer Kornoely (13:26.346)
It's made me realize that while what I do right now with the photography business, it's helped grow it, first of all. It's helped me learn how to budget. It's helped me learn how to market. It's helped me learn how to move my money around. It's taught me how to pay myself. It's taught me how to just improve my business in general, but it's also taught me

It's not what I want to do for the rest of my life.

Christian Brim (13:58.222)
Interesting. Tell me more. Tell me more.

Jennifer Kornoely (13:59.584)
I no longer want to trade my time for money because it's not scalable. For me to photograph a house, I physically have to be there. I have to drive to the destination. I have to shoot it. I have to meet with the realtor. have to participate in all the things physically. I want to build a business instead that is scalable and helpful and

Christian Brim (14:05.876)
Mm. Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Kornoely (14:27.16)
going to help improve the lives of the women in my community.

Christian Brim (14:32.114)
Okay, so I'm going to pull on this thread a little bit. Could you not envision a business around real estate photography that you did not have to be doing all the work?

Jennifer Kornoely (14:53.838)
Sure. And a lot of photographers transition into something like that because it seems to be once you've sort of developed your technical skillset, that's how you transition into making better money is moving into coaching, education, courses, anything like that. So you'll see a lot of, you know, photographers in their forties and fifties and they're not out there doing the daily shooting. They're creating courses.

Christian Brim (15:19.642)
Well, okay, so I've seen that, but I'm thinking specifically around the business where you manage the relationships and or the marketing and sales, but you have other photographers actually going and doing the work. Is that possible?

Jennifer Kornoely (15:38.444)
Yeah.

Jennifer Kornoely (15:42.158)
Anything's possible. It's not the direction I necessarily want to take. A lot of it too is I've been doing it for 15, 16 years. I'm ready for new things, you know?

Christian Brim (15:55.608)
Okay, so that's kind of what I was wanting to get to is is it's not that the business isn't scalable. It's it's more this doesn't light your fire.

Jennifer Kornoely (15:59.18)
Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Kornoely (16:07.724)
Yeah, a lot of it. I it's you're only limited by how creative you're willing to be. And a lot of people have done that were especially with real estate photographers, where they've kind of built sort of this network of connecting photographers with realtors. And that's great. It's I think I'm ready for a change, though.

Christian Brim (16:29.968)
Yeah. And so what do you think, I think I know the answer from what you've already said, but what do you think the next chapter looks like?

Jennifer Kornoely (16:34.946)
Hahaha.

Jennifer Kornoely (16:46.718)
Growing the book club, I'd like to see it reach the 300 member mark. I'm hoping that happens within the next year and a half-ish. having that, the ability to build a community that is really helpful in doing something that's gonna uplift women and give them a safe space to learn and grow.

Christian Brim (16:47.186)
growing the bookmarks.

Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (17:13.547)
What is the business model of the book club? Like how do you how do you make a business out of that?

Jennifer Kornoely (17:20.078)
Um, because it's a membership, so it does have a recurring monthly revenue. Um, when, when you're willing to spend the money to join a membership, you have some skin in the game. You're going to participate rather than, oh, it's free. Yeah, I'll do that thing. I'll read the book. Sure. I'll get to it. When you have an investment in it, granted, it's only $15 a month. It's not a massive investment. It's doable for nearly everyone.

Christian Brim (17:23.29)
Okay.

Christian Brim (17:26.834)
Okay.

Christian Brim (17:35.569)
Yeah.

Jennifer Kornoely (17:47.704)
but it's kind of gonna hold you accountable. yeah, I gotta read that book this month. I'm gonna learn. I'm gonna be on the Zoom. I paid for it. I need to be on the Zoom. And being on the Zoom is when you're having conversations with other women. And that's when everything is, all the puzzle pieces are starting to come together is when you're having those conversations.

Christian Brim (18:06.0)
Yeah. I don't know if this is the way you felt, I, even, even I still struggle with this, even knowing what I know when you want to help people, there, there is this tendency to say, well, I will just give it away for free. And if you're doing that strictly as a marketing ploy, totally makes sense. It's not a business model.

and what I found is exactly what you said is that, excuse me, people, perceive value based upon what they pay.

Jennifer Kornoely (18:53.752)
Yes.

Christian Brim (18:55.162)
I could envision where you would, you could talk charge 10 times that amount. If it were a curated group of people where they were at a different, a certain place, in their business and asking next level questions and, then it's not really a book club.

Jennifer Kornoely (19:18.22)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (19:21.874)
It's really about the network and the relationship. Yeah, potentially. Yeah, I hate that word. But yeah. Well, yeah, and it's kind of like coaching. means it means nothing. I mean, it's like, what does that mean? Yeah.

Jennifer Kornoely (19:23.436)
A mastermind. Mm-hmm. I know, it's such an overused word. And that...

Jennifer Kornoely (19:34.997)
I know.

And there is long-term plans to evolve the book club as we go. Right now, I had a few women whose objection was, don't have time to read, I don't have the attention span to read, I have little kids at home, things like that. I can't knock out a 300-page book. Okay, great, how do we problem solve that? So I created a level that was, okay, instead of you going and reading the whole 300-page book, I'm gonna summarize it for you I'm gonna give you a five to 10-page PDF. Here's the nuts and bolts of the book.

That way, because everyone has time to read five or six pages, everyone. So that way you kind of know the general gist of what's going on. Come to the Zoom, you can still participate in the conversation. So that, no, they don't, they pay a higher rate. Yep, yep. Because not only am I saving them time, I'm saving them whatever 10, 15 hours, I'm saving them the expense of buying the $20 book. So it is at a higher rate, that one is 27.

Christian Brim (20:12.049)
Right.

Christian Brim (20:18.29)
They still pay the same though. Actually they pay more. absolutely.

Christian Brim (20:33.799)
Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Kornoely (20:37.122)
And then also down the road as it grows and there's a larger audience, the ability to offer different levels, services, whatever you want to call it. Right now we just don't have the audience. We've got 25 people. So, but as we grow, that's definitely a possibility in it in the works.

Christian Brim (20:43.73)
Hmm.

Christian Brim (20:51.89)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (20:57.038)
I also wonder as you were describing that what a in-person option might look like.

Jennifer Kornoely (21:07.456)
I have ideas of eventually hosting read treats where it's more the fun side of reading. We knock out business all day long. We're grinding, we're going, going, There is also the pleasure side of reading. And yes, okay, maybe you're not learning about investment strategies, but instead you're building your creativity.

learning empathy, all these things that come as a side effect of reading fiction books, all these good things in a nice setting. like rent an Airbnb, invite half a dozen women, have a publisher sponsor books so that everyone takes home a tote bag full of fun books because there needs to be the other side of the coin. Sure, everyone has a jam, but primarily fiction books is what I'm thinking.

Christian Brim (21:51.634)
Coloring books, comic books. Okay.

Jennifer Kornoely (22:03.662)
Because there's two sides to every coin. We can't just always be in hustle mode constantly. We've got to have the benefits of the relaxed side too.

Christian Brim (22:13.636)
It reminds me, I went to a conference right after chat GPT came out and it was a conference on AI and they had a neuroscientist speaking. And this is again, right at the onset of LLM. So we hadn't seen any effect on people from the LLMs. And he was saying that essentially.

over the last 50 years in America, we have cognitively declined. And his belief was that was primarily due to video. So originally TV, and then the onset of the internet and YouTube and all that other stuff. And his prescription for that was read, but read

Jennifer Kornoely (23:00.014)
Yeah.

Christian Brim (23:12.816)
read things that you wouldn't normally read. So if you don't normally read poetry, read poetry. If you don't normally read history, read history. And write about it. And he said, and that is the cure for this cognitive decline that we've experienced. And I thought it's sage advice.

Jennifer Kornoely (23:17.614)
Yep.

Jennifer Kornoely (23:23.758)
oooo

Jennifer Kornoely (23:34.456)
I had never thought about incorporating the writing side of that. Yeah. I think a lot of it too goes to, it's like the, you know, growing up in the seventies and eighties, we had the benefits of being bored. You were forced to entertain yourself, you know, cause yeah, we had TV, but we had three channels. One of them was PBS. One of them was, you know, the news. And so.

Christian Brim (23:38.129)
Yeah.

Christian Brim (23:47.15)
Mm-hmm. I was bored a lot. Yeah.

Christian Brim (23:57.908)
And commercials only, mean, only came out on Saturday morning, so.

Jennifer Kornoely (24:01.676)
I know. But it was instead, go play outside. Don't come back until it's dark. So you were forced to be imaginative and be creative and interact with other people. You wanted to have fun with your friends. You had to go walk down there. You had to talk to their parents. You had to ask if Amy could come out and play. know, we don't do that anymore. Kids don't do that.

Christian Brim (24:05.778)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (24:23.314)
You know, I saw two kids riding, I don't know, 10, riding their bikes in my neighborhood the other day while I was walking. And we have an odd neighborhood. One of my neighbors has goats. And as I watched them, they were riding their bikes and they were going to play with the goats. They didn't live there, I knew that. I don't know where they came from.

But I was just kind of reflecting watching them like, man, we need more of that. you know, because that just reminded me of my childhood. I didn't have goats. But you know, my friends and I would go ride our bikes and go just explore like you just. Well, going back to the other in person thing, just and I'm I'm 100 % not giving advice. I'm just like ideating here, right?

Jennifer Kornoely (24:55.064)
Yeah.

Jennifer Kornoely (25:05.143)
Yeah.

Jennifer Kornoely (25:17.206)
Sure.

Christian Brim (25:18.572)
And I think the in-person experience people are craving. because Zoom's great, it's efficient, but there's a certain thing that you miss from being in a room with somebody, sensing their energy, their non-verbal cues, breaking bread together.

Jennifer Kornoely (25:29.997)
Yes.

Jennifer Kornoely (25:38.092)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (25:48.69)
You know, there's something about being together in person. And I kind of envisioned these little franchises all over the, and I don't know that I'd do a franchise model, but like, you know, the book club of Philadelphia and the book club of Miami and there's in-person meetups. And I don't know, I love that idea.

Jennifer Kornoely (25:48.835)
Yeah.

Jennifer Kornoely (26:05.812)
Sure.

Jennifer Kornoely (26:13.526)
like a B &I for book clubbers.

Christian Brim (26:17.316)
Yeah, I mean, but but but like network. So I don't know what goes on in your meetings, but like to me, the problem with BNI or any networking group is that people are there to sell. And that's just a different energy than I'm getting together to get to know you and find out what you think about this book and have a conversation. You know, it's a completely different dynamic.

Jennifer Kornoely (26:28.002)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, yeah.

Jennifer Kornoely (26:39.064)
Yeah.

Jennifer Kornoely (26:45.302)
And a lot of that is there for sure, but it's also my target book club audience, women who are entrepreneurs. Women entrepreneurs who are maybe newer to being in a business role or an entrepreneurial role who maybe don't know what they don't know. So I've found that, so I found that,

Christian Brim (26:52.606)
Who is that?

Christian Brim (27:05.458)
I still don't know what I don't know.

Probably will always be that way.

Jennifer Kornoely (27:14.114)
found that, well, yes, networking groups that are really business-focused rather than relationship-focused or personal conversation-focused like BNI, while I have some feelings I don't like the constant pitching, I also like the idea that it's people, specifically women, who are going to show up every week, who are investing in themselves, who are willing to take the time.

Christian Brim (27:40.614)
You make them read a book a week?

Jennifer Kornoely (27:43.042)
No, we do it once a month. But it's that mindset. Like if you're showing up to BNI at 7.30 on a Tuesday morning because you want to improve yourself, you want to improve your business, you want to learn things, you want to get to know about other people in your community, that's the mindset that's perfect to show up for SheReadSheLeads compared to, I just, whatever, I don't have to do this. I'm not going to put any skin in the game. I'm not going to put the effort forth. It's that mindset.

Christian Brim (27:45.541)
okay.

Christian Brim (27:49.625)
I see. Okay.

Christian Brim (28:01.852)
Hmm, okay.

Jennifer Kornoely (28:13.006)
that is ideal.

Christian Brim (28:16.068)
Yes, because I'm a huge, I don't say fan, advocate of the 80-20 rule, the Pareto principle, as it applies to human behavior. And to your point, there's 80 % of the entrepreneurs out there that are not going to have any interest in what you're talking about because they're distracted, not committed, you know.

Jennifer Kornoely (28:26.946)
Yes.

Jennifer Kornoely (28:31.234)
Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Kornoely (28:43.032)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (28:46.318)
Not willing to do the work is what it boils down to.

Jennifer Kornoely (28:48.206)
Yeah. Mm-hmm. But those 20%, those 20 % are so willing to just constantly improve themselves. They're willing to read, they're willing to have the conversations, ask the hard questions, be vulnerable.

Christian Brim (28:58.534)
Hmm.

Christian Brim (29:04.954)
I'm I'm I'm I want to connect you with a guy that after he exited his business, he was a marketer in the legal space. So he did marketing for professional personal injury lawyers. Yeah, awful, awful, awful. Well, no, it's not hard to sell them because they definitely want to advertise but like it just

Jennifer Kornoely (29:24.72)
that's gotta be a hard sell.

Christian Brim (29:33.362)
When he, when I met him, I'm like, that just sounds like an awful job dealing with those people. anyway, he sold his agency and he started this, thing called better book club. And this is probably about seven years ago. And it was a, it was like a technology enabled way for businesses to get their team to read.

Jennifer Kornoely (30:00.974)
Mmm.

Christian Brim (30:01.518)
and and like, you know, curating book lists and awarding points and blah, blah, blah. But I honestly don't know where he's at with that business. But I'll connect you to because there might be some experience there and some overlap.

Jennifer Kornoely (30:15.8)
Sure, I'd love that. I think though that like you were saying earlier, people are craving the community side of it now more than ever. And especially as we kind of, you know, maybe start to get a little bit older and we realize we're not forced to be with people in school or at our, you know, first big girl job. We're not forced to be around those same people all the time. And as entrepreneurs, we're by ourselves a lot. And that, it gets lonely.

Christian Brim (30:22.616)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (30:33.614)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (30:42.886)
Yeah, and everybody is remote. even if you even if you worked with anybody else, you never see him.

Jennifer Kornoely (30:45.165)
Yeah!

Yeah, so anything that's going to bring together community of like-minded people is going to be beneficial.

Christian Brim (30:57.842)
Well, it's interesting the timing that we're having this conversation because we had a client event here in Oklahoma City last week where we invited clients, curated to Oklahoma City. And it was two days where it was really just a space to have a conversation. We had no agenda. We really didn't know where it was going to go.

over the course of those two days, was none of these people had, I had not met any of these people in person because they're from all over the country and we do our work remotely and none of them had met each other. And in 24 hours, they were glued. I mean, it was wild. I mean, you couldn't,

Jennifer Kornoely (31:55.211)
Yeah?

Christian Brim (31:56.912)
get them to stop talking. They, you know, was into dinner and drinks afterwards and like, it's just this instant connection. And they were like, if you do more of this, I'll pay you more. And I'm, you know, I'm as an entrepreneur, I'm like, well, wait a second. We might have something here. And the thing that I'm kind of wrestling with is how to

Jennifer Kornoely (32:10.893)
I love that.

Jennifer Kornoely (32:15.084)
Yes.

Christian Brim (32:27.438)
How to curate it because I think one of the as I mentioned before, I think it's very important that you get the right people at the table. You know, people that would, you know, were side hustles or just starting up and had these basic questions would not fit at that table and and not be having the same conversations and it wouldn't work. It wouldn't work the same way, right?

Jennifer Kornoely (32:36.35)
Mm-hmm, for sure.

Jennifer Kornoely (32:51.778)
Yeah.

Christian Brim (32:54.594)
But also like the idea that I don't want to hold this just to core. Like I, I, I envisioned that the community that I want to create is not dependent on them being a core client. Yeah. that it, you know, they still have to meet the criteria and, and supposed to be at the table, but they don't have to be a core client to, to.

Jennifer Kornoely (33:11.372)
Yeah.

Christian Brim (33:22.786)
be part of this community. And so I'm trying to figure out what that potentially looks like. if you have any experience here, I'm putting it on the spot, but if you have any experience here, I'd love to hear it. And if you get, off the call and have something you can tell me later.

Jennifer Kornoely (33:41.134)
A friend of mine, Vincent Puglusi, he does something quite similar down in Florida. Yes.

Christian Brim (33:46.854)
Pause. Is that how we got connected?

Jennifer Kornoely (33:50.636)
No, we got connected through Podmatch. Do you know Vincent?

Christian Brim (33:53.338)
Okay, because I know Vincent because he was on the show and then we started talking about Unconference and I went to Sarasota a couple of weeks ago. I went.

Jennifer Kornoely (33:55.894)
Okay. I love that. Yes. That's what I just going to tell you. you went? I love that. I wasn't able to go. I took husband on a vacation for his 50th birthday. We went to Costa Rica. So Costa Rica won out over Sarasota. Any day.

Christian Brim (34:11.986)
100%. It was cold in Sarasota.

It was colder in Sarasota than it was at home. I'm like, this is absolute bullshit. I don't

Jennifer Kornoely (34:17.496)
Yeah

Jennifer Kornoely (34:21.261)
Hahaha!

Christian Brim (34:23.258)
I'm sorry, I interrupted you, go ahead.

Jennifer Kornoely (34:25.032)
No, no, I was just going to say your ideas for what you're creating sound very similar to what he's creating with the Unconference, how you're focusing on the connections that people are making and the conversations they're having rather than the typical sort of conference style plan or agenda. So I was going to suggest that you should meet up with him.

Christian Brim (34:46.82)
Yeah, and and he and I he and I had talked about it both pre and at and post event and and I definitely am going to seek his his guidance on that because he's you know what what he has created is unique and I think brilliant from what I understand though that that community

started as like his coaching clients and, so like kind of evolved and I'm not starting from there, but I am starting with, core clients. what we, we, we did a heat map. We'd never done it before. Like, okay, where actually are our clients? Right. So like, if we were going to go have another in-person event, where should we do it? And, so we, did that and

Jennifer Kornoely (35:22.924)
Yeah.

Christian Brim (35:43.238)
You know, my, my thoughts are like potentially, having the clients that are saying the Atlanta area, be hosts and curate potential attendees. You know, I think, you know, there has to be a charge for people that aren't client core clients, because to your point, if, if they don't pay, they're not going to show up.

But I don't know, we're, we're still walking this out. So I'm, I, I'm, I may be picking your brain, after, after this episode.

Jennifer Kornoely (36:19.8)
I used to be in Vincent's community because he had a membership teaching memberships. And that's how the idea of book club came about is from, you know, learning the idea of building a subscription based community from Vincent. Small world.

Christian Brim (36:34.258)
Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Well, one of the guys that was at our client event, he lives in Nashville and I didn't know this, but he's creating an online community for he's a, he's a loosely, I would say a videographer. I think more, he's a full producer. He doesn't have a production house, but like he's, he's, he's too skilled to say he's just a videographer. Um, but he was

He was creating this online community of other people in the space to basically connect and share experience, technical business, you know, et cetera. And I'm like, we got a jam because like I, those are my people that I want to talk to too. And I don't want to get into what you're doing, but is there any way we can, you know, lift each other? So, you know, I'm, I'm, yes.

I'm fascinated about where this all may go.

Jennifer Kornoely (37:34.766)
The possibilities are endless. Yeah.

Christian Brim (37:37.138)
They are, they are. And the other thing that really struck me about this event, one guy came in from Austin and when we opened up the beginning, he was like, man, the sands are shifting, know, agencies aren't hiring me anymore. Uh, I don't even know if I'm going to have a job. And after connecting with these people after 24 hours, he left their

Jennifer Kornoely (37:59.79)
Ugh.

Christian Brim (38:06.954)
And we had this text thread going and he was just texting for, mean, and he was like, my mind is exploding with possibilities. And I think that's the other thing that's really critical about the community is the encouragement element of, of being around people that are going through the same thing and being able to share your fears, share your anxieties and, and get a different.

Jennifer Kornoely (38:22.7)
Yeah.

Jennifer Kornoely (38:31.734)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (38:34.63)
get a perspective that's not just all wrapped up in your own head.

Jennifer Kornoely (38:38.462)
a thousand percent. And even like, you know, when you're just say reading a book, you're just taking someone else's mindset, the author, and trying to import it. But when you start, you know, getting a dozen people together and discussing it, it all shifts because you pick up on the little nuances that, I hadn't thought about it that way. But this other person who has more of an analytical background, they thought of it differently. And you start to be able to sort of minutia it.

Christian Brim (38:46.834)
Mmm.

Christian Brim (39:07.026)
Mm.

Jennifer Kornoely (39:08.45)
to fit your own mindset.

Christian Brim (39:11.45)
Yeah, no, I think the the the scariest place to be as an entrepreneur is inside your own head. I mean my my experience it is it's It's awful. It's awful It really is because I don't know about you i'm Thoroughly convinced. I have some type of neurodivergence and like

Jennifer Kornoely (39:19.251)
God, yeah, it's noisy in there.

Jennifer Kornoely (39:26.668)
Hahaha

Jennifer Kornoely (39:38.367)
yeah.

Christian Brim (39:42.63)
The other day I was supposed to do something and I forgot a component and I, my wife sends me the emoji with a face palm and I'm like, I'm sorry, my brain just doesn't function that way. Like I, I really wish it did like, but then when you get into a difficult spot where something's not working and, you're having trouble, it can, you could just spiral being by yourself and

Jennifer Kornoely (39:54.904)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Jennifer Kornoely (40:12.01)
absolutely.

Christian Brim (40:13.778)
That's awful, awful place to be. So I'm so excited for what you're doing. I will offer you to donate books to your book club if you want to read my book. Have you?

Jennifer Kornoely (40:20.824)
Thank you.

Jennifer Kornoely (40:32.644)
we would love that. Is your book available on audiobook? yay.

Christian Brim (40:37.178)
Yes it is and it's got my beautiful voice reading the whole thing. That was an interesting experience recording audiobooks.

Jennifer Kornoely (40:48.706)
Was it super weird to read your own content out loud?

Christian Brim (40:51.122)
Yes, it is. It is. And it was surprisingly difficult. You know, I thought that it would be much easier, but like there was a lot more fumbling than I thought. I'm like, you wrote this. No, I have not. No, I, sent it off to the editor and I've never listened to it again.

Jennifer Kornoely (40:55.918)
I

Jennifer Kornoely (41:03.64)
Have you gone back and listened to it?

Jennifer Kornoely (41:10.88)
It's weird to listen to your own voice.

Christian Brim (41:14.13)
It is, although with podcast, you know, I get, I get to hear myself a lot more. Excuse me. My wife even, you know, dinged me the other night because I was watching a real on YouTube and she goes, you're listening to yourself again. I'm like, no, no, no, no. I just want to see what the marketing department did with the hook. like, I'm not listening to myself. Right. Um, but, but, you know, I used to not like the sound of my own voice and didn't want to hear my own voice, but

In in in reading you think because you don't talk like you write right and and and so going back and reading what you wrote it's it's very similar to Reading what someone else wrote even though you wrote it. It doesn't it doesn't flow the way you talk

Jennifer Kornoely (41:50.062)
Mm-mm.

Jennifer Kornoely (41:55.022)
Yeah.

Jennifer Kornoely (41:58.638)
Sure.

Jennifer Kornoely (42:02.094)
No, you're using different senses. It's like sometimes it's almost like they're not connected.

Christian Brim (42:06.609)
Yes.

Hmm hmm hmm, maybe not Jennifer how do people find out more about she reads she leads if they want to join?

Jennifer Kornoely (42:13.486)
Yeah.

Jennifer Kornoely (42:20.846)
Well, we have shereadsheleads.com, of course. And that's, we've built our own platform there on the website, so it's great. We, that's where anybody can sign up. That's where they can see what books that are upcoming, the previous books we've read. I also have on there a downloadable PDF about the top three books in six different categories that every entrepreneur needs to read. Everything from personal finance, starting a business, building wealth,

networking, being productive, mindset, the best books that you need to start with. Of course, my personal opinion, but also Facebook and LinkedIn are a great place to find me. Always talking about the books on there.

Christian Brim (42:57.392)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (43:07.818)
Okay, so before I dismiss our our do you curate like because I was just thinking like I would share this with my leadership team who are mostly women not exclusively women. Would that be appropriate? Would that group be appropriate? Is it just strictly for entrepreneurs? Or is it someone that wants to be a leader?

Jennifer Kornoely (43:32.63)
No, it's not strictly for entrepreneurs. Anybody who wants to improve their mindset, their business savvy, be a part of a community in a different kind of way. Like they want to be having conversations. We have people who are normal nine to five-ers, but have maybe more of a desire for self-improvement. have, you know, people in every industry, banking, medicine, creative, you name it. And it leans more...

Christian Brim (43:52.88)
Okay.

Jennifer Kornoely (44:01.506)
variety to the conversation.

Christian Brim (44:03.698)
Okay, so it would be appropriate for me to share. Listeners, we'll have those links in the show notes. If you like what you heard, please rate the podcast, share the podcast, subscribe to the podcast. If you don't like what you heard, and I don't know why you wouldn't, you can shoot us a message, hit that button, and tell us what you want to hear, and I'll replace Jennifer. Until next time, ta ta for now.

Jennifer Kornoely (44:04.834)
Yeah. for sure. For sure.