273 – The SuperHero is Back: Tom interviews Barbara Anne Cookson

Episode 273 – Barbara Anne Cookson
[00:00:09] Welcome to Screw the Commute. The entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money, with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire, Tom Antion.

[00:00:24] Hey everybody it's Tom here with episode 273 of Screw the Commute podcast. We have the original super hero. All these other superheroes are nothing compared to this superhero. Wait, till you hear her story. I hope you didn't miss episode 272. Jeff Herring. He's the content guy, is one of my students from way back and he's talking about a great opportunity for you to get into right now on the program called medium or the Web site called medium, where you can make money and drive a lot of traffic. It's a perfect time to get in. Don't miss that. Now, how would you like to hear your own voice here on Screw the Commute? What the show has helped you out at all in your business or giving you ideas that help you start a business, we want to hear about it. So visit screwthecommute.com and look for a little blue sidebar that says Send a voicemail. Click on it. Talk into your phone or your computer and tell me how the show's helped you and put your website in there. So we'll give you a good shout out on a future episode of Screw the Commute. Now, hope you didn't forget. If you've been listening to the show, you are doing yourself a disservice if you don't download our automation e-book at screwthecommute.com/automatefree. This thing will help. It will just speed things up like crazy for you and your business to help you get more to take care of customers faster. Beat out the competition because people hate waiting for responses. Oh man, saved me millions of keystrokes. You just gotta go download that book at screwthecommute.com/automatefree while you're at it. Grab a copy of our podcast app at screwthecommute.com/app and this is all going to be in the show notes. So you don't have to worry about writing any of this stuff down. And Barbara, our superhero guest, is going to have some great stuff for you to download to a little later. Let's see our sponsor. You know what? We're in the middle of this pandemic. Everybody's quarantined sitting at home. I'm used to it. I mean, this is I've worked out of my home since 1977. All right. If you can count backwards that far, that's a long time. So it's nothing new to me. But the searches on Google are going crazy for work from home. People were like, oh, maybe I should listened to Tom in 1996 when he started telling us about it. Well, heck, heck, no, don't worry about it. Yeah, you should worry about it because we're not missing a beat around here where a lot of people are. You know, really hurting now. So maybe this is time to get off your butt. Increase your skills and get yourself an insurance policy by learning how to work from home on the Internet is the best way. And that's what I've been teaching. That's what my school teaches. And this just think you're negligent to you and your family for not getting these skills if you want to be in business. If you just want to be a worker bee, great, OK? You depend on somebody else. But if you're listening to this podcast, you want to screw that commute. And this is the way to do it. So get in touch with me. IMTCVA.org is our school. I have a mentor program. Lots of our guests that have on here started with me years ago and now are making their own big money. So. So check it out.

[00:03:51] All right. Let's get to the main event. Barbara Anne Cookson is a certified holistic health coach, group fitness instructor, author and soon to be podcaster. I don't know. Who listens to podcasts any more? I don't know if that's a good idea or not. We'll get her to tell us, but I hope you listen to podcasts. So she leads workshops and she keynotes conferences as the super hero speaker. And everybody in the crowd hates her because she wears this skintight outfit and none of them could ever fit in it in a million years. And so so they either worship her or hate her, I don't know which it is, but now they really love her. She helps audiences unleash their inner superhero. And she lives in the beautiful state of Maine with her super hero dog, Winston. Barbara, you ready to screw? The commute?

[00:04:51] I already have.

[00:04:53] That's right. Everybody is right now. So has it been since the last time you were on here?

[00:05:00] Oh, my gosh. Great. I am. I'm busy. I'm happy.

[00:05:06] Oh, shoot videos because we see you were done here on video.

[00:05:10] Yes.

[00:05:11] Yes, I was down there for a video weekend with you and it was awesome. Yeah. I'm still doing videos and I'm having a great time with that. I'm trying to get myself back in gear. This this pandemic has just sort of thrown me for a loop, as I'm sure it did have a lot of other people, too.

[00:05:29] Yeah, but you're a superhero. Yeah, I am. I am. But any kids are gonna stop a superhero, but I'm also part human.

[00:05:39] But yeah, this this pandemic is is something. But I'm like you. I'm used to being alone and working from home. And and I just love it. I've I've taken my my what I had for in-person coaching I'm now doing online and I'm doing zone calls with people as long as as far as at the same as everyone else in his days. But I'm also writing and I'm working on a lot of different projects. I finished a book and got it up on Amazon since I talked to you last, since I was on the. What's the title back in the beginning? It's called a super hero. You kind of do activate your unstoppable powers.

[00:06:20] That's awesome. And you know, we're not really technically alone. All right. You got superhero dog Winston.

[00:06:26] That's all right. That's right. I actually put him in the car while we're doing this podcast because I'm in a tiny apartment and I have windows that look out on the street.

[00:06:38] And every time someone walks by or a dog goes by, he goes crazy barking.

[00:06:43] So I thought, oh, that's OK. We went with him on one of these days.

[00:06:48] Well, he's sitting in the car for like a minute later when I get in his car. Is that supposed to move somewhere?

[00:06:56] I didn't know that this was a dog house.

[00:06:59] Well, that's right. Poor guy.

[00:07:01] We we've actually walked this morning for a couple of miles, so he'll have a nap.

[00:07:05] Okay. He goes tuck in their beer and they're looking at me. They get that super off the phone. Let's go play ball. It's Easter. So. So anyway. So the book is The Superhero. You is called a superhero.

[00:07:21] You activate your unstoppable powers. And it's a workbook type book. I've had great reviews on it. It's kind of a compilation of a lot of the things that I talk about when I do keynotes.

[00:07:36] And I had audiences that were asking for a way to take home what I teach them to share with their kids and to share with their families and coworkers and and employees. So I put it all together in a workbook and it's and I've had really great feedback.

[00:07:54] Do you think any of this stuff would help people now when they're bouncing off?

[00:07:59] Oh, my God.

[00:07:59] It absolutely give him some tips on helping open them out because it absolute the only people that are making money now are drywall people because people are beat her head against the wall and putting holes in the wall of their home.

[00:08:13] I know, I know. It's just it's really, really a hard, hard time for so many people who are now isolated. And I feel for the parents who are home now, home schooling kids and also still trying to work it. It's just it's heartbreaking. But yeah, what I write about in the book definitely can help in this kind of scenario. Jim, some tips. Okay. One of the tips is to stay engaged. Stay focused. Which is really, really hard.

[00:08:41] Well, that's because they don't call off the wedding.

[00:08:45] So some lady in Italy did get married during this and they were wearing masks and they only pulled them down to kiss and then put it back.

[00:08:53] Oh, my God. I had to guess those. Oh, they were loud, funny, low locally here.

[00:08:59] I'm in Maine and I don't watch the news.

[00:09:03] I turn to the United States. Yeah, it is some something to think. We're in Canada. We are in the United States.

[00:09:11] And I stopped watching the news several weeks ago because it was just too, too depressing. But I did turn on the local news here one night with a little antenna that I have. And a local couple actually got married and and all the guests came and sat in their cars. And it was it was pretty cool. So people are overcoming the circumstances in one way or another, but. But staying engaged, staying, staying focused. One of the things that I've I've been coaching a lot of my my clients on is structure keeping a structure.

[00:09:49] Because when what now that we're all thrown for a loop and our structure has taken away, a lot of people are are forced home. They're not able to go to work. They're not seeing people. Their kids are home. And we lose structure in. The first thing we do is we we change our routine. I had a hard time with that, actually the first couple of weeks because I teach fitness classes early mornings at the beginning of my day and I would be up at 4:30 every morning, I'd go to the gym, teach my class, come home and I had a set routine for everything.

[00:10:22] And all of a sudden there's no routine. I don't go to the gym. There's no reason to get up. So for a couple of weeks, I really struggled and I slept in and then I'd come downstairs and I didn't know which way to turn first. And the very first thing we need to do is get our structure back, get up, take a shower, just like you did when you had your normal routine and get that routine back.

[00:10:44] And it's hugely positive for your mental health.

[00:10:50] Speaking of structure, a lot of people are worried that they'll even have a structure to live in. Yeah. You know, they can't make mortgage payments and everything. So a lot of stress out there.

[00:10:59] Oh, my gosh. And people are. People are so stressed. And and I've had clients calling me in tears.

[00:11:05] And there. There are definitely tools in my book that that people can use to get them through that being engaged.

[00:11:15] And I teach people to do that through grounding exercises and through breathing exercises. Meditation is really good.

[00:11:24] So you're not talking about using face time with your grandkids, right. As though there's that part of who engaged, actually.

[00:11:31] Actually, it can be the thoughts of retirement. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:11:35] And staying engaged with your family. I live alone. So for me, it's definitely been, you know, Xoom calls, face time calls. I got all my friends and family to put Google do all on their phones so that we can chat with vis a vis video calls.

[00:11:53] Winston have his own phone. He's out there in the car.

[00:11:59] I've had I've had so many people tell me that Winston needs his own Facebook page was. Yes, he has so many fans.

[00:12:05] The guy on the left, this this 0 on Friday here, the guy on Wednesday had a blog for a long time for his dog is Dargo blogger, we call it.

[00:12:18] Well, Winston really does need one. He definitely. He actually has lots of fans. And we I walk him every day. He's got a girlfriend. Oh, he has a girlfriend. Oh, yeah. Her name is bon-bon.

[00:12:31] You're going to be a grand mom. Yeah. You would like bon-bon. She looks like a little B shot.

[00:12:39] She's adorable. But we walk every day. That's another another tip for people. We've got to keep moving. Teaching my classes, I used to teach a a weightlifting class in the morning. And now I'm not going to teach that class. But I'm making sure that I get in some exercise at home. I walk with Winston every day, but we've got to keep moving.

[00:13:00] Cancer. Cancer. Get in touch with the people that would come to your classes and do the same class on zoo.

[00:13:08] I actually might be able to do that.

[00:13:10] It's it's a weightlifting class. Well, no fireballs.

[00:13:13] And was it. It was the 4:31. The weightlifting. Yeah. Hiccup for three years. The weights anyway. Well, you'd be surprised. They made it really hard up for stuff to do too. You'd be surprised. I wouldn't be surprised.

[00:13:29] I've actually had people from the gym, members at the gym where I teach. Call me and and they they miss me. They miss the classes. And that's that's been really well.

[00:13:40] I don't see any reason why or why you're not doing that. I'm sitting here thinking hard. I'm turning the computer off at 4:30. And I would see if I saw somebody going by and jogging close to the gym to lift weights, I'd probably shoot them because I really had lost it.

[00:13:58] Finally, it's a great way to start your day, and I think that's why I years.

[00:14:07] You're a superhero and can fit in those skin tight suits. Actually, I'm up about five pounds. Oh, I've that's one pizza for me when you're 15 pounds. Shut up.

[00:14:23] Oh, I bet you if you had a speaking engagement in your suit, that £5 would be gone to her.

[00:14:28] Oh, yeah, that would be. It would be. It's not very forgiving, I'll tell you.

[00:14:33] And as far as speaking, it's you know, keynoting a conference is one thing. But I have some conferences that I was doing here in Maine, actually, that were. They've they've contacted me and asked if I would do them on ZIL Russia's farmwork. Fantastic. So I've got some lined up now to do on Xoom and I can't wait to do those.

[00:14:55] Yeah, absolutely. Really, really beneficial to you.

[00:14:58] You're going to just bring your costume. I'm not going to do the cost. Why not? Why do you think recoded zoom? That's because. You with your tape and everything. I am by. That's right, I need the gape.

[00:15:12] But yeah, that's that's that's another thing we can do from home as speakers is is to do our zoom workshops and presentations and and following in your footsteps, Dom, I'm saying follow me to the gym at 4:30 in the morning.

[00:15:26] I can tell you I should text you when I go back to the gym and say, OK, it's time to get up going. That's all you want to hear.

[00:15:37] But yeah, I'm following in your footsteps. I'm going to be starting my podcast.

[00:15:41] All right. What's a good record? I'll bet it has superheroine it.

[00:15:45] It's called the Superfied Life.

[00:15:48] Oh, not superhero life.

[00:15:49] Personal growth for the rest of us.

[00:15:57] So am I allowed to be on it if I don't go to the gym at 4:30?

[00:16:01] You're absolutely right. You're you're a superhero. Why is it going to start April 30th? That's my that's my launch date. Yeah. That I've picked. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:16:12] I'm getting some more episodes completely recorded and edited.

[00:16:15] I'm doing it all myself right here for my little till I do right here I am sitting here. I've edited. This will be where the episodes are you. Two hundred and seventy two. I, I personally edited every one.

[00:16:27] Yeah. Fantastic. That's what I'm doing too. Yeah. And, and it's really fun and I think it will. I well I know it will help people.

[00:16:35] You are interviewing or yourself or both.

[00:16:37] It's it's going to be both. Yeah it's gonna be both. It's gonna be a lot of stuff with just me and and I've got some other people lined up to be guest and I'm sure I'll have you on. Winston Winston will be here.

[00:16:49] Is it audio? Video? It's it's going to be audio.

[00:16:54] But I'm thinking that at some point I may I may add video in there. Yeah. Cause you can throw among YouTube stuff. Exactly. Exactly.

[00:17:02] And I'm gonna be sitting here, you know, anyway at my age you have short hair so you probably have less bad hair days than the average girl.

[00:17:09] Tom. Oh my gosh. I'm glad you brought up hair.

[00:17:13] You are.

[00:17:15] You probably you probably haven't seen my my video that I did last week. I did a quarantine haircut. I cut my own hair. I videotaped the entire thing and then edited it. I mean, it gets kind of boring when you're with by yourself. So. So I've been having fun editing videos and making funny video.

[00:17:35] Why have I said a couple weeks ago, remind me not to cut my own hair again because I pretty much sculpt myself with the dog numbers. Yeah.

[00:17:45] Oh, no. Well, I've been cutting my own hair for years. Oh well it doesn't bother me, but I have a hairstyle. I have a lot of friends who are hairstylists and they are actually they they just cringe to think that I'm over you.

[00:17:58] Why can't I have like those scruff kind of beard now?

[00:18:03] Looks great.

[00:18:04] Had nothing to do with the pandemic, though. It says that I heard that razor blades caused global warming. So I'm trying to do my part.

[00:18:19] Thank you for doing your part.

[00:18:21] Yeah. Yeah, no problem. Good. I stepped up. So. So what other kind of tips would help the people that are beating your head against the wall, letting go of expectations for themselves, too?

[00:18:33] To be perfect.

[00:18:35] I mean, I I listen to a woman the other day who was talking about the demands on her for her job and for the school homeschooling her kids and and the feeling that they're feeling. A lot of moms, a lot of parents are feeling like they're failing because they're not able to provide the best education in school for their kids and also keep it altogether and keep the household going and their jobs going in. And some of these moms are also health care workers who are still working full time.

[00:19:13] And we put too much pressure on ourselves to be the perfect everything and for everything to go right. And right now, things are not going to go right. They've all gone to hell if people haven't noticed. Yeah. And and so we've got to allow ourselves. I don't like to use the word luxury, but allow ourselves the luxury of being imperfect. And it's okay.

[00:19:40] I got that covered. Yeah. So two big way.

[00:19:46] But yeah, stop pressuring ourselves and stop feeling guilty and and be willing to just let things be what they're gonna be. And and it's all gonna work out. It's gonna be OK.

[00:19:58] I can imagine because there's, you know, trying to go from nothing to home schooling your kids. Yeah.

[00:20:06] I mean, you you you have a built in screen for 30 years and yeah, the math and the and all the things.

[00:20:13] Yeah, it's I keep my my heart goes out to all the moms and dads out there.

[00:20:19] Well I don't probably even it what they're doing would be better than most public schools at the time.

[00:20:26] I think I would agree anything that they can learn at home with with mom or dad I think would be probably better. But yeah, it's just it's such a stressful time for people and moving and eating. Right. Even even at home, you don't have. Well, I shouldn't say this because I'm a fitness instructor at a gym. But you don't have to go to the gym to be to be healthy and move. I've got a set such stairs in my apartment. I pick up Winston and I run up and down the stairs and he's 20 pounds. That's a lot of weight and it doesn't take long to work.

[00:21:00] You really are hard to present.

[00:21:05] And the dog is again thinking, wait a minute, we're we're at the top of the stairs and now we're going down to the bottom of stairs again.

[00:21:13] Wait, wait. Now at the bottom, we're go back to the top. What's going on? It's lady's crazy. And why?

[00:21:22] But, you know, there's so much we can do to take care of ourselves and our mental health, too. And even though it is a quarantine situation and we're asked to stay in course, I'm in a rural area. People in the cities, it's a little bit different. But we can go outside. You don't have to stay indoors. It's staying away from other people.

[00:21:45] I think you just had a blizzard or something up there.

[00:21:47] We did mygosh to spring blizzard. We did. And the power still is out.

[00:21:54] The line was on. There's everything. And that's why Maine you're able to go outside in Maine because it's opening up there.

[00:22:03] Well that could be nice. Yeah. We're spread out anyway.

[00:22:08] But yeah, we had a big storm on Thursday. Thursday it was two to three days ago. And people are still without power here. My gosh. So I was lucky to get mine back after about 20 hours. Oh, yeah. Vibratory think I don't have a generator, but I do have a gas fireplace. OK. And and I have a gas stove. So I got up and I had coffee and I had a fire going and it was you run up and down the stairs in the dark.

[00:22:36] Yeah. So I'm very fortunate.

[00:22:38] That's why they make stairs at a standard size. So the worst of times in the dark, you can run up and down and that's real down. That's right. There's a I think this guy was I think he's either from Maine or Vermont. I can't remember. But he was a state policeman. Here he is. Now, I know this because when I was in West Virginia, there was like one state police and one sheriff car for 300 square miles. All right. So. So he's a comedian now, but he was saying that, you know, it took him so long to get anywhere, if somebody would call, you know, for for the police. And so he's he said one time a lady called because he was having a baby and there was come in the house and he says, by the time I got there, the kid answered the door.

[00:23:31] Well, it's not quite there, but. But we are we are rural and spread out.

[00:23:38] Yeah, I know that feeling. All right. We got to take a brief sponsored break. We come back. Barbara has a superhero gift for you. And we'll hear more about where you can get a copy of the book. So one day I want to tell you, folks, is it back in around the year 2000, I kind of turned the Internet marketing world on its head because guys at my level were charged in 50 or 100 grand upfront to small businesses that teach the stuff that we do it.

[00:24:09] And and plus, I knew a lot of those guys. They wouldn't even come through if you did give them the money. They wouldn't, you know, with it, get all the money upfront and then, you know, they they don't care if you're successful or not. So I kind of made them all mad and turned the Internet marketing world on its head. When I charge like a fraction of that as an entry fee and then a percentage of profits that was capped so you wouldn't be stuck with me forever. And then plus people knew that I wouldn't disappear on them because for me to get my big money, they had to make way bigger money. So people just loved that. And seventeen hundred students later, it's still going is the longest running, most successful ever mentor program in the field of Internet marketing.

[00:24:53] It's got all kinds of unique things. You spend an immersion weekend at the Greater Marketing Retreat Center, which is basically my estate home. Barbara's been here for the video weekend and. All kinds of perks to the program, plus you get one on one tutoring by me and my entire staff on an unlimited basis.

[00:25:16] Nobody at my level even talk to you, let alone teach you. He thinks so. So it's really very powerful. And one of the things we added or know about 10 years ago was if you joined the mentor program, you get gifted a scholarship to our school. A guy joined the mentor program. He gifted the scholarship to his daughter, who he had spent $80000 on her crap education and she's working a crappy job. After one month in the school, she started making eleven hundred dollars a month. Two months. She started making to. Three thousand three months, I'm trying to remember. Thirty four hundred and that the fourth month she was making six thousand dollars a month on the side, quit her job and now is a full time Internet marketer and she still has like four months left in the school. So that's how powerful this can be because every business on earth needs these skills. And I tell you what, I'm really mad at the traditional universities because they are ripping people off. In fact, we have a quiz at the school sites showing you seven ways that big schools are fraudulently ripping off families. So so anyway, if you if you'd like to give a legacy gift to your children, your grandchildren. I'll tell you, you couldn't do anything better than to get them these skills now. And so they don't end up with hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt and then learn how to protest. That's about all they're learning now. So so check it out at IMTCVA.org. It's the distance learning so they can learn from anywhere. They can speak English and get a an Internet connection. And if you want to talk to me about it, no obligation. I'll be glad to talk to you about the future online.

[00:27:12] All right. Let's get back to the main event. Barbara Anne Cookson is here. She's the super hero speaker. And. And Barbara, you got a new book out and you got something special to give away to our folks here. Right?

[00:27:25] Yes. Yes. Yes, I do. The the workbook is is absolutely fantastic.

[00:27:31] It takes you through eight superpowers that we all have that we've forgotten to activate. And there are questions in the workbook to to help you work through that.

[00:27:44] I got seven of them. But the one up at 4:30 and going to the gym, I just haven't got that one yet. You can do it.

[00:27:52] You could do it. It's all in one of the powers using you choose. Used to do that. I must list that page.

[00:28:01] But I created actually a a daily guide that goes along with the workbook. But you can use it even if you haven't read the book yet. It's very self-explanatory. And it's available at my Web site. It's called A Superhero You Check List.

[00:28:18] And it's a checklist that I use every single day. Especially now. It's very helpful. I have mine laminated and then I can use it every day and wipe it off. And was a nice day. And it's a it's just a one page daily guide and it comes with instructions on how to use it to maximize your day. And I also have a audio visual meditation that is recorded in a downloadable file. It's designed to put on your phone or your mobile device so that you can watch and listen to it as many times as you want. All the dates, just a three minute audio visual meditation and all of my coaching clients use it and love it.

[00:29:01] All right. So where do they find all this stuff?

[00:29:03] You can find those at my Web site, BarbaraAnneCookson.com.

[00:29:25] And the book's on sale now at Amazon.

[00:29:28] It's on sale now at Amazon. Grab a copy and get one as a gift.

[00:29:32] Is it is it a physical thing or Kindle or both?

[00:29:36] This is a physical book. And I I didn't put it on Kindle because it's designed as a project. Designed for personal development. And I really wanted people to actually go through it with paper and pen and write things in it. They're journaling pages and there are a lot of interests. I call them IQ questions. They're introspective questions to help you work through the entire guidebook.

[00:30:03] It's good that you did that because a lot of these kids that are being forced to be homeschooled by their parents might be dumb enough to just try to write on the screen.

[00:30:17] Well, there's there's something about a pen to paper.

[00:30:20] Yes, absolutely. All my books are marked up all the time. Some people think that's blasphemy, but not me. The whole idea is to convey the information. I love that, but there's plenty of room for the digital world. So it keeps everybody happy. Yeah. So. So what I suggest now is that you go sit in the car and let Winston come in and hang around the house, not be banished to the driveway.

[00:30:58] Oh, poor Winston I'm gonna go get him the minute I'm off the phone.

[00:31:02] All right. So good catching up with you.

[00:31:05] You too. Thanks so much, Tom.

[00:31:07] Yeah. Everybody get over there to BarbaraAnneCookson.com. We'll have that in the show notes and get your copy on Amazon for sure. All right. So good talking to you. And we'll catch everybody on the next episode. See ya later.

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