Jennifer Dunham

Happiness can be automated in less than 5 minutes a day

 

Jennifer Dunham is CEO of Happinessmatters.com and a renowned Time, Money & Happiness Mentor specializing in the field of productivity and profitability for entrepreneurs. She is the creator of Profitable Lifestyle Live, the groundbreaking entrepreneurial 3-day hub for discovering your unique brilliance and crafting a vision for life and business.

Where did the idea for Happinessmatters.com come from?

Honestly, it was a Band-Aid fix that just stuck. Probably not the answer you were expecting. You will notice that my url is happinessmatters.com which is where I started as a Profitable Lifestyle™ blogger. But what I learned is that I was attracting the wrong clientele with just the name Happiness Matters because everyone wants to be happier. However, entrepreneurs who are struggling to make consistent cash-flow each month aren’t thinking of happiness as what they urgently need. So I needed a quick fix. When I thought about who I was working with and why, I came up with Time, Money & Happiness Matters.

What does your typical day look like and how do you make it productive?

I still run my IT firm several days a week, along with Time, Money & Happiness Matters, so I don’t necessarily have a ‘typical’ day. However, I’m very focused each day with exactly what priority must be met that day. I will often work-out for a quick 20 minutes and check in my east coast team for any urgent matters, before I shower and head into the office. In the evenings, I often have a few group calls and then I spend a bit of “grounding” time outside in nature before I spend an hour of tv time with the hubby. I do secure Fridays to be in my home office as a rule.

How do you bring ideas to life?

I’m super blessed to be both right and left brained: computer science and mathematics in grad school (hence the IT firm) but also having owned a photography studio for 15 years. So I love both the creative
and implementation process. When an idea is born, the next step I always take is I ask myself, how can I make this happen and I come up with a plan. Usually it involves conversation with my team who help keep me in check since I usually have too many ideas at once.

What’s one trend that excites you?

I’m not sure I’d call this a trend, but the focus on customer experience is on the rise. I’ve seen a recent shift in multi-day events (at least in my industry) where attendance in the larger 300+ events has been on the decline. The business coaching arena is changing. This excites me because I’ve always enjoying attending and hosting smaller events where customer experience is the focus. One of the best compliments I’ve ever received from someone who has attended my event was that they felt personally care for and it made them feel at home.

What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?

Well considering I’m a certified Tiny Habits® coach, I better have some good habits, right? I practice what I preach to my clients, which is making sure I have the habit of doing revenue generating tasks everyday. One specific example, I reach out to at least 1 lead each day to just to make sure they know I’m thinking about them and wish them a Happy Day! Now you may wonder why I consider this a productivity habit, but loving on your leads is the best way to increase that KLT factor (know like trust) and when they are ready, they will come to you.

What advice would you give your younger self?

Do less in order to focus more. It’s often tough when you are multi-passionate to pick just one focus and I’ve learned that simplicity can aid in consistency of action. And to take more time off to spend with family.

Tell us something that’s true that almost nobody agrees with you on.

Happiness can be bought. I even argued with my mom on this one after she read a chapter in my book. There are two levels of income that entrepreneurs face. The first level of income is that which is needed just to survive. This is the bare minimum to pay bills and meet payroll. Verses, the second level where entrepreneurs really start to thrive. And when so many entrepreneurs are caught beneath level 1 and before they reach level 2, money would buy a whole lot of happiness. Now that said, I also think you can automate happiness in less than 5 minutes a day through the power of Tiny Habits, leaving you to focus on the money making tasks.

As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?

So many entrepreneurs get to the end of their day and wonder “what did I do all day?!” They kept busy. They were working all day. But they didn’t get done what they intended to get done. So you have to KNOW what you worked on in order to improve your time. Track your Time!

What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business?

Leverage Leverage Leverage. Until you are at the level where you can outsource or have a team, you are often doing everything. And it’s easy to feel the pressure of being all social platforms, creating video content, podcasts, blog posts, etc. But with the right plan, and understanding how you can leverage your brilliance and repurpose your content, you can increase your visibility easily.

What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?

Before I realized my company name was wrong, I had been selected to be one of five people for a Shark-Tank like presentation at a large Joint Venture conference. I had two minutes to pitch. The basis of my minutes was how Happiness increases productivity, sales, and can be the secret sauce going INTO the success of one’s business, instead of the byproduct of success or the end result. E.g. I will be happy after I lose weight. I will be happy after I get that promotion. I will be happy after I meet the right person. The punch in the gut came when the “sharks” all agreed…Happiness won’t sell. Now we all know that’s not true, but what they meant was that for entrepreneurs, happiness is not their #1 most urgent problem.

What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?

I would love to hire experts, who come in after the holidays, and just put all my Christmas décor away! All those ornaments on the tree nicely and securely packed away for the next year. Can you imagine?!

What is the best $100 you recently spent? What and why?

OMG I got this Gorilla Cart on Amazon for hauling around all my garden supplies. Picture a wagon…but on steroids. And it dumps! This has saved me so many trips back and forth when I planted my garden this
year. (Did I mention that my hubby and I live on a small 5-acre chicken farm?)

What is one piece of software or a web service that helps you be productive?

I LOVE Trello. My team and I have really utilized this project management software more heavily the last few years. We now have templates for all my VIP clients, our courses like Dash to Cash, and even
a board for my 3-Day live event Profitable Lifestyle Live. After we use it one time through a launch, we deem it as the template. For example, after our March event, we archived that board after copying it over to the October 2019 event that is coming up. Without, so much would be falling through the cracks.

What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?

Not the typical entrepreneurial business book, but I have to come back to a book that greatly shaped how I’ve built my businesses now. Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. In it, she shares one thing that really stuck with me that has shaped how I have built my Profitable Lifestyle community. Gretchen described how when she did something well, or was really excited about something, she learned that her husband was not the “pat her on the back” type of person and at first, it deflated her. But her lesson, was that she found the right community of peers that would give her those pats when she needed them. I’ve built my community on sharing wins and elevating everyone’s excitement about their business.

A recent book club read that I enjoyed: The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell by Robert Dugoni. The lesson in it was don’t be ashamed of being unique.

What is your favorite quote?

Perfect is the Enemy of the good. – Voltaire

Key Learnings:

• Structure equals freedom.
• Perfectionism, Procrastination and Lack of Planning are the killers
  to consistent action. Tiny Habits are the key to consistent action.
• Indecision is still a decision.
• Happiness can be automated in less than 5 minutes a day
• You have to make an offer in order to make money.

Connect:

Website:
Instagram:
LinkedIn:
FB Biz Page:
FB Group: