How I Made $175,000 With No Prior Experience: My First Big Win
In this episode, host, Victoria Jenn Rodriguez gives you a behind the scenes look into how she secured her first six-figure corporate client in her very first year of business.
Victoria Jenn shares the step-by-step journey that led her from employee to entrepreneur and how she made over $175,000 in less than 12 months as a business owner. From initially doing resume reviews to having a pivotal conversation at a conference, to finally pitching and closing the deal.
This transparent look at Victoria Jenn's journey to closing her first big corporate client, unveils how you can set yourself up for major wins, even within your first year of business. Discover why mindset, intentionality, and the right support system can rapidly accelerate your path to profitability.
Why shifting to a B2B business model was a game changer
Why "faking it until you make it" actually works
How securing a sponsor and mentor can provide the blueprint to success
Why getting comfortable with negotiation is non-negotiable
If you liked this episode, you'll love our next one—it's packed with similar insights and inspiration!
How I Made $175,000 in 5 Months
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Full Transcript:
It was during my first year of business, and I made $175,000 off of one corporate contract. Let me bet on myself and see how far I can go. Now, for those of you who don't know me well enough, I'm a Miami girl.
I mean, can you tell, honey? I realized very quickly that if I wanted to actually secure the big bag, I needed to seriously consider a B2B business model. Okay, boom, shift, light bulb.
The interesting part about this whole story is I had no idea what the hell I was doing. Only 4% of women in business hit a million dollars in revenue. And of that 4%, 54% of them are able to hit a million.
You want to know why or how? If you are someone who is thinking about entrepreneurship or are currently an entrepreneur right now and you have not considered corporate and government contracts, you're doing yourself a disservice and quite frankly, leaving money on the table. Banking on Cultura is about setting you up.
Setting you up for what? Setting you up to secure the big bag. Hey guys, welcome back to Banking on Cultura.
“I am your host, Victoria Jenn Rodriguez. And today I want to talk to you about how I made my first six figures as a business owner. I like numbers, so I'm going to tell you exactly what that amount was.
It was during my first year of business and I made $175,000 off of one corporate contract. But it took me a minute to get there and I want to break down how I was able to get there, starting with where I started. So my background, I grew up on Wall Street, graduated from college, went right to the street, did sales and trading for a few years, transitioned to pharmaceuticals.
I worked in healthcare. I worked on legislation in Washington and Albany. And then I returned back to the corporate sector and headed up talent management for organizations like Johnson & Johnson and Morgan Stanley.
“And it was about 15 years that I was in the corporate sector. So I definitely built up skill sets while I was in corporate. I never turned down that opportunity to actually experience what it was like to be in a super robust environment, what it was like to work in an industry that was heavy male dominated, what it was like to be the only Latina in the room.
Because it allowed me to grow some thick skin. I'm also from New York City. So that has definitely helped as well to allow me to become comfortable in my skin and to really build confianza, confidence.
So that when I became an entrepreneur, I already had some foundational skill sets that I could leverage to help me in this space, right? So 15 years in the corporate sector, about six years ago is when I started my business. And I started my business because I wasn't able to get any other corporate gig.
“So I was laid off from my last corporate job and they wanted to relocate me to Tampa. Now, for those of you who don't know me well enough, I'm a Miami girl. I mean, can you tell, honey?
So Tampa is not really my vibe, no shade to Tampa, but it really wasn't a good fit. And so I decided that I wanted to go look for a new gig. And so I started interviewing at a number of different firms and I quickly found out that perhaps this corporate thing isn't for me because I wasn't able to close the deal.
And I'ma close it, y'all. So I was like, okay, what is God trying to tell me? What is the universe trying to tell me?
And I said, you know what? I've got savings. Let me bet on myself and see how far I can go.
Worst case scenario, I have this 15 year kind of credibility block that I can use. I have this amazing network that I can leverage. So worst case, I'll always be able to find a job.”
“So I started my first business and I was doing interview training and resume reviews, right? Because when I was in corporate, I was doing talent management, I was doing recruiting. So this was a skillset that I built up very quickly.
Also, I just thought about this. When I was in college, shout out to Baruch, I was in the Career Development Center. They had a program called Peers for Careers, and I actually would help students how to do their resumes as well as prep for interviews.
So it's so interesting that that was the first business that I launched. And so I started doing interview training and resume reviews, and I was doing that for a while, and I was making money. And then I was invited to attend this conference in Napa, California.
And it was amazing because it was a Latino-led conference. Shout out to the Hype. Shout out to Richard and everyone in the family.”
“And they allowed me to go on the strength of me being a new entrepreneur. And this conference is expensive, y'all. And so they allowed me to go all expenses paid because, you know, part of the mission and vision of that organization is to support Latinos in any endeavor.
Whether you're an entrepreneur or you're a professional, they are there to help you get in the right rooms and help you take advantage of opportunities for you to expand and for you to level up. And that's exactly what I did when I went to that conference. I had the honor to meet a number of incredible Latino entrepreneurs as well as Latinos in the corporate sector.
And there was one gentleman in particular that I had the honor and pleasure of sitting down with and just picking his brain. His name is Angel Gomez. Shout out to Angel if you're listening to this.”
“And he sat down and he broke down the game to me about how to go after corporate business, how to go after corporate contracts. And when he broke it down to me, I was like, what does that even mean? Like, what do you mean corporate contracts?
Like, how do you do that? And the reason why I was interested is because he told me he was able to make six figures off of one contract. And I was like, here I am doing interview training and resume reviews and that was cool, but it definitely wasn't pulling in six figures, right?
So I was like, hmm, how can I learn more? So I started asking him questions about how he was able to do this and what is the game? Like, what is the strategy?
“How do I position myself to go after these type of corporate contracts? And he literally spent, I would say, an hour and a half with me, like breaking down the game and putting me on and sharing how he's been able to grow his business pretty much through speaking engagements and locking in these corporate contracts. So as soon as I had that conversation, something shifted in me.
I realized very quickly that if I wanted to accelerate, if I wanted to actually secure the big bag, I needed to seriously consider a B2B business model. Selling, B2B means selling from one business to another business versus just B2C, which is what I was doing, doing interview training and resume reviews, right? It was B2C, I was selling directly to a consumer versus selling my intellect and my intellectual property, right, to another business, right?
So I said, okay, boom, shift, light bulb, okay. So how do I now package my expertise to go out and sell to these other businesses, right? I started thinking, I started considering, I started looking at my own business model and thinking about, okay, how can I shift?
“How can I make things happen? And ironically enough, when I was on the interview trail, because remember, I told you, my last corporate job, they wanted to lay me off or have me go to Tampa. So I was still interviewing with jobs before I decided that I was going to pursue entrepreneurship full time.
And so I went on an interview with this amazing woman who was working at the largest asset manager in the world. And I had an interview with her, and the role just didn't really seem like a fit at the time. And she knew that, I knew that, but we kept in contact, right?
She followed me on LinkedIn. She was starting to see my posts. And at that time, shortly after that interview, is when I really decided that I was going to double down on entrepreneurship.
So now, you know, our first interaction was her actually hiring for a role on her team. Realized it wasn't a fit, but now she's engaged with me on LinkedIn, and she's seeing that I have now transitioned and am pursuing entrepreneurship. So fast forward six months.
“This is now after Napa. This is now after I had that interview with her. This is now when I decided to pursue entrepreneurship full time.
She calls me and she said, hey, there's another role open. Are you still looking? And I said, no, I'm not.
I actually have decided to double down and invest in myself and start a consulting business. And she said, okay, well, best of luck to you. I'll keep that in mind if any opportunities come up here.
I said, okay. Boom, click. Not thinking anything would come about it.
But surely enough, a month later, she hits me up and she's like, hey, some executives here are seeking out a consultant to build out an onboarding program. Are you interested? And I said, hell yeah, I'm interested.
Like, tell me to scoop, like, what's up? What's the in and outs? And she set me up.”
“She set me up to come in and essentially pitch my idea and interview for that opportunity, went on a couple of meetings, and the rest is history. Within my first year of business, I was able to secure a six-figure corporate contract with the largest asset manager in the world. But the interesting part about this whole story is I had no idea what the hell I was doing.
I had no idea what I was doing, but when I sold that baby, like, I knew exactly what the hell I was doing, and I've been in this for years, and I walked in there with my head high, full of confidence. That is what allowed me to gain the respect and also allowed for this organization to take a risk on me. Because I packaged myself so well, leveraging my skill set from corporate, leveraging everything that I learned in corporate, because I knew that I could get the job done.”
“I knew that I could do it, even though I had never done it before. I knew that I could get the job done because I was either going to leverage the skill set that I grew up in corporate with, or I was going to Google my way. I was going to ask questions.
I was going to build relationships with people who could show me the game on how I can actually build this program out. And that's how I walked into those pitch meetings with that type of mindset and that type of confidence. So fast forward, they took the risk on me, and I made $175,000 for a project that took me only five months to do.
I mean, people don't even make that in a year. I had never made that much money in a year. I was making six figures when I was in corporate, but I was like baby six figures.
I was nowhere near $175,000. So even me being able to secure that contract was huge, right? It was a huge testament to not only my ability, but like holy shit, I could really do this.
“And also holy shit, there's real money out here, right? And throughout the negotiation process of that contract, I would constantly call up Angel and he would mentor me throughout those conversations, right? And so I completed the project, killed it.
Feedback was amazing. Still have incredible relationships with all the executives there. And it taught me so many things about, A, the power of believing in yourself.
B, the significance of having people in your life that are doing what you wanna do, that are willing to pour into you and give you the game. Three, the significance of you being in rooms that allow you to have that type of access to people who would be willing to mentor you, right? So getting out there, putting yourself out there.
And then lastly, the major takeaway was, I need to teach other women how to do this. Because only 4%, only 4% of women in business hit a million dollars in revenue. And of that 4%, 54% of them are able to hit a milli.
“You wanna know why or how? They're able to do that because they go after corporate and government contracts. So if you are someone who is thinking about entrepreneurship or are currently an entrepreneur right now, and you have not considered corporate and government contracts, you're doing yourself a disservice and quite frankly, leaving money on the table.
Because there are budgets out here, y'all, okay? Like, let's say you're a coach, and you are coaching someone, and your coaching package is $5,000, and you're spending six hours with them, right? And it costs $5,000 for them to participate in that package.
Imagine if you could take that same package, sell it to corporate, and get paid $50,000 to just spend six hours with someone. Do you see the difference? And do you see how you would be working smarter instead of harder in that situation?
“So, so many learnings came out of that first corporate engagement. And I think, you know, the myth that, you know, you have to be five years in business in order for you to be profitable or in order for you to make money is bullshit, right? Because I was able to do it within my first year.
I had certain things in place that allowed me to do it, right? I had a network. I had someone who knew the game that was willing to put me onto the game, right?
And I had focus. I had intentionality around going after this big ass bag, right? My goal was, okay, how do we secure this big bag, honey?
How do we do this, right? So I had those things working in my favor. But just like I was able to do it, you can do this too, right?
“It's just a matter of you having the framework and understanding the steps that you need to take in order for you to get there, in order for you to have the opportunity to actually scale something, in order for you to position yourself as an expert who has credibility, right? Who has intellectual property, right? Who has experience that is able to get these type of jobs done.
Because ultimately, what corporate and government agencies are really looking for, any of these big organizations, they're just looking for solutions to their problems. And if you are a solution to their problem, they are willing to pay you at a premium. And that's essentially what you want to go after.
And what's really interesting about this space is you can go after these corporate and government contracts, even if you don't have experience. It's all about how you sell yourself, right? How you package your expertise, how you position yourself so that people are looking at you as an expert, right?
“And there's a number of different ways for you to do that. And I actually break this all down inside the Dare to Leap Academy. And the Dare to Leap Academy is something that I started about two years ago.
It's an online learning platform where I teach women who are in corporate how to make the transition to entrepreneurship without losing their financial security. So essentially, how do we plan for your exit, right? How do we get you making money in your business already before you even leave your corporate salary so that you're able to bring in consistent revenue?
And I started this academy because so many women were following my journey, and they were like, how are you doing this, V? Like, how are you staying profitable? How are you still in business?”
“Like, how are you doing this? And so I decided to take all my intellectual property, all of my lessons learned, all of the sweat equity, all of the mistakes, and package it, right? And create this on-learning hub where any woman who wanted to start a business and wanted to figure out how exactly to scale, how to bring in consistent revenue, I walk them through the exact framework that allowed me to stay in business for six years and still be in the green, honey, okay?
Okay, so if you are interested in joining the Dare to Leap Academy and learning more and seeing if we are fit to work together, I invite you to book a magic call. This is completely free, it's a strategy session, it's an opportunity for you and I to really figure out where you are, what your goals are, and see if you're a fit for the Dare to Leap Academy, right? And just to give you some context into what you can expect inside the academy is we covered three main phases, all right?”
“And these three main phases have been literally the three main things that continue to come up on my entrepreneur journey, okay? So first and foremost is mindset, right? Mindset is paramount, it is the foundation of everything that you do.
It is one of the things that we will discuss on the Magic Call. By the way, in order for you to book that call, you can go to www.victoriajenn.com backslash Magic Call. I'll also put it in the show notes, so you guys can just click on the link and go ahead and book that call.
But we cover Mindset on that call because I wanna see where your mind is at. Your mind is an incredible tool and will make or break you. And so in the Academy, we take a deep dive into your mindset.
So all that imposter syndrome, that self-doubt, lack of confidence, how do you manage your time? How do you stay focused? How do you actually make the transition from being an employee to an entrepreneur?
Because trust me, honey, it is a transition. So we focus on mindset. The next phase is business fundamentals.
“Because a lot of entrepreneurs out here, they are trying to run before they learn how to walk, honey. Okay, they don't know anything about business taxes. They don't know anything about business credit.
They don't know the difference between an LLC and S Corp. They just out here winging it, right? Because they were influenced by some guru that told them entrepreneurs so spectacular and they need to be a part of it.
And they have no idea what they're doing. And really, ultimately what that means is they're wasting valuable time, right? They're wasting valuable time that they can be investing in learning how to secure the big bag instead of learning all of these basic things that are the foundational setup for your business, right?
“Because you're just trying to go, go, go, go, go instead of understanding that there's an actual framework and formula in order for you to set the foundation correctly up for you to secure the big bag. It goes so far as, y'all, ain't nobody... If you don't have a bank account, if you don't have a valid business, if you don't have a valid EIN, if you are not a valid, formalized business, ain't nobody paying you six figures for nothing, right?
So you need to make sure you have that structure in place. And then the last phase is all about sales and marketing, right? So not only are we going to make sure you have the structure, you have a business plan, you have a strategy, but now we're going to teach you how to actually go out there and sell the damn thing and how to market yourself in such a way so that people automatically, without question, look at you as the number one problem solver to their problem.
“And what do people pay a premium for? People who are able to solve complex problems, aka you, darling. So we'll be talking about that on the Magic Call.
So make sure to go ahead and book it, www.victoriagen.com backslash Magic Call. I cannot wait to speak with you and hopefully have you join the Dare to Leap Academy familia. So that's today's episode.
I hope you found value in this. If you have some takeaways, put it in the comments, leave a review. Let me know all the things.
I want to know what you guys are thinking. And I want to make sure that I'm talking about things that actually are of value to you, right? I want to help you as much as I can, y'all.
Banking on Cultura is about setting you up. Setting you up for what? Setting you up to secure the big bag.
So I need you to meet me in the middle and let me know if we are sharing content that actually is valuable to you and if you find this content valuable at all, all right? And what else you want me to talk about. So until next time, I'll see you in the next episode, y'all.
Mi gente, did you hear? Banking on Cultura is also on YouTube. So if you're into the visual thing, if you want to see our reactions and get into these fits, honey, make sure to look up Banking on Cultura over on YouTube.