When is the best time to start your business that you have been dreaming about for years? The simple answer is right now! Don’t wait any longer. The hardest thing for me to see as a business coach is when people have waited for “that perfect” moment to get started, and that moment still hasn’t come!
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Born and raised near Cleveland, Ohio, Cheryl got married at 18, had 2 beautiful children and divorced at 21.
During her divorce she lived in poverty so poor she had to go to the local church for milk & cheese to feed her two babies.
Shortly after her divorce, her mother passed away of breast cancer at the young age of 43 and her grandmother passed three months later. It was the darkest time of her life.
But, the words of her mother saying “Never depend on anyone & always have the capability to stand on your own 2 feet.” drove her forward.
She graduated from Kent State University in aeronautical engineering with honors and started her first business which was a modeling & talent agency.
Slowly but surely she began to heal from all the tragedy in her life.
Cheryl then landed a huge modeling contract with Playboy Book of Lingerie. No nudity!!! This changed her life.
She bought first home & a fishing charter boat & started her second business.
Eventually her modeling and acting career really took off. She split her time between LA and New York to pursue modeling in full swing.
This opened up acting opportunities for her as well as she landed over 50 roles on “Law & Order” & the “Sopranos.”
Her resume now consists of over 36 TV and film appearances as well as several print jobs like Romance book covers, catalogs, runway etc.
Cheryl is currently owner of KidsPartyCharacters.com and recently took her franchise nationwide in the USA and international in London.
And as if that isn’t enough, Cheryl is also a pilot working with the owners of Netjets since 2005. Yes she can teach you to fly a plane! She launched Elite Flight Club in 2018 and expanded internationally in 2019.
Cheryl recently published her third book called Beyond the Enchanted: Escape from the Darkness into the Enchanted. Her goal is to help people to see no matter what life throws at you it can be overcome with hard work and drive. You can check out her other titles on Amazon.
Cheryl is still active in modeling and is known as a fitness modeling influencer.
Show Notes
This interview was originally recorded in June 2020. I was fascinated by Cheryl’s ingenuity and willingness to adapt both her Kids Party Characters business model and Elite Flight Club model to meet the requests of her clients and keep her businesses running while all of New York was on lock down.
Cheryl adapted Kids Party Characters so that the children’s characters joined families on their front lawns for drive by birthday parties, hosted chats with characters over Facetime and Zoom, and recorded special video messages for her party clients to play for their children. While things are starting to open back up for children’s parties and small gatherings, Cheryl sees some of these changes remaining in her service offering taking her very local party business global in a virtual way.
Using her connections through Elite Flight Club, Cheryl temporarily transformed her high end private jets into cargo carriers to bring face masks and other PPE supplies from China back to the USA.
And she continues to blow me away when I see her post a new modeling picture! She is a beautifully smart business woman taking advantage of all of her skills and gifts!
Cheryl offered up her key tips to get started in business:
- First and foremost, do something that you love! When you do something that you love it is going to energize you to add the most value and you are going to want to keep doing it and doing it for the love of it!
- Surround yourself with the right people. There are so many nay sayers out there that will tell you, “You can’t.”
- Think BIG! As soon as you possibly can, build a team to support your vision. It could be hiring out domestic tasks or time consuming repetitive tasks in your business. But, think of your time as money and hire out the things that aren’t worth YOUR time! Build a team that can take care of the smaller tasks so you can stay focused on the big picture and the things that ONLY you can do.
Connect with Cheryl
Find Cheryl’s books at CherylJacobs.org
facebook.com/CherylElizabethJacobs
instagram.com/cheryljacobs2017
YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0TM_gYkBLZtTersKuJniow
My mission is to encourage women to trust in themselves in life and in business. With love and faith I lead women business owners to find freedom in their God-given identity so they can live out their purpose with confidence. By helping you set expectations that lead to action, your dreams become a reality!
Stephanie Ferrara
Coach, Speaker, Freedom Fighter
Being genuine to yourself is important to your success and feeling fulfilled in life. Creating a personal brand that is authentically YOU isn’t hard when you’ve got the right tools and ask the right questions.
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