What Works

The Nitty Gritty * The strategies that led to Simple Green Smoothies’ explosive success: from adopting Instagram early to focusing on the community from day one to zeroing in on a single topic to grow the brand * The pivotal moment when Jadah Sellner knew she wanted to leave Simple Green Smoothies to start something new — her own personal brand — to free her voice * What the process of exiting the company looked like for Jadah, how long it took to officially make the decision, and what life’s looked like since then When you find what works in your business, you want more of that. But what happens when you reach success and realize that you want something else? Today’s guest, Jadah Sellner, can tell you more about that. She’s the former cofounder of Simple Green Smoothies, the wildly successful online resource for recipes and cleanses. Everything about the company worked: Instagram followers climbed, the email list multiplied, and launches sold out. As Jadah says, they had a system that worked: rinse and repeat. And while things were working, Jadah wanted more: more creativity, collaboration, and communication that was authentic to her. She wanted to show up in the world fully expressed. That’s when she decided to leave Simple Green Smoothies and start her personal brand. In this episode, Jadah shares her experience on launching — and exiting — a company and pivoting to create a personal brand… plus, all the magic, wonder, and intention in between. We release new episodes of What Works every week. Subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode. Establishing your voice in a crowded market “We really took a stand for how we were different. We shared beginner-friendly green smoothies. We used a higher fruit ratio and some people were like: these are too sweet! And we were like, we are not for the hardcore raw foodist yogis. We are for the everyday mom who’s core vegetables are corn and potatoes: because that was me.” — Jadah Sellner There is no unique message, only unique messengers, Jadah says. And that’s certainly the case when it came to Simple Green Smoothies. So how did they amass 400,000 Instagram followers during Jadah’s time there by sharing green smoothie recipes, despite no formal wellness or nutrition training? For one, they used their experience as busy moms wanting to eat and feel amazing to their advantage. They shared fun content around the recipes — and their lives as moms — rather than deep nutritional information. For them, green smoothies gave them more energy — and made them feel like the best moms in the world because their kids were drinking spinach smoothies. Leaving a successful company to pursue your own “I wanted full expression and using my full voice. We really built Simple Green Smoothies in a way where we had a consistent strategy: the challenge, email sales funnel, sell the cleanse. Rinse and repeat. But what was missing was actually me using my voice and I think my voice is one of my best gifts. I wasn’t using it in that business and I saw the vision for building my personal brand, speaking on stages, being a guest on other people’s podcasts, and launching my own.” — Jadah Sellner It took a couple years for Jadah to officially leave Simple Green Smoothies. The company was successful… and she wondered if it was the right decision to actually leave to start something new. Would she be as successful in a new venture? Was leaving the smartest move, especially when things were working? She didn’t know the answer but she needed to find out. Jadah longed for full expression to use her authentic v...