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
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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.
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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 voice — and knew that it was ultimately the right decision for her to exit the company. It was a process and it was difficult, she says, but at the end of the day, it was about leaving the company with as much love and integrity as possible.
There were a few things that made it easier on everyone, including having friends and mentors to help through the process. Jadah also read Getting To Yes by Roger Fisher and Rising Strong by Brene Brown that taught her “how to have those vulnerable, uncomfortable conversations but doing it with so much love and respect,” she says.
Pivoting to a personal brand
“All I wanted to do was talk about was how we did it. I didn’t want to talk about the difference between blending and juicing. It was that big launch where it gave me this sense of credibility and proof that I could help people go after their dreams and really take that imperfect action to do and build a business on their terms and doing work that they really, really love.” — Jadah Sellner
After an extremely successful launch for Simple Green Smoothies — making $86,000 over just a couple days — Jadah realized that she wanted to help others experience this business opportunity and the life transformation that comes with it.
For her, the launch equaled validation. She now experienced something that she could teach others. But, she still hesitated. Why would she leave Simple Green Smoothies when it was doing so well? Even business mentors and friends didn’t understand.
Even so, she knew she wanted to launch her own personal brand — even if she didn’t know exactly how she’d do it. It took a few years, but Jadah officially left Simple Green Smoothies in 2016 to totally commit to her voice and personal brand.
Listen to this episode to hear more from Jadah Sellner on exiting a company with love and intention and starting a personal brand that aligns with your vision.
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