69 – Ms. Perseverance: Tom interviews Jo Hausman

Episode 069 – Jo Hausman
[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 69 of screw the commute podcast and by the way that's my favorite number. I don't know why but that's my favorite number and just so happens a beautiful lady's here named Jo Hausman. She's an inspiring lady. She's a radio talk show host and a bestselling author. You're going to hear her story in just a moment. Now I hope you didn't Miss episode sixty eight Bryan Caplovitz. I've known him for years. He's the founder of Speaker match. It's a great service which puts emerging speakers together with meeting planners very inexpensive price. He doesn't take a percentage when you get a chance go back and listen to episode 68. A quick announcement or a podcast app is now in the App Store. We're gonna have training on our website that will do all kinds of cool things right from your mobile phone or tablet. So you'll want to download that from the App Store and we'll give you directions on the site screwthecommute.com and our sponsor is the internet marketing training center of Virginia. The distance learning school which teaches legitimate techniques to make a great living either working for someone else or starting your own online business or both. How about that. Check it out at IMTCVA.org. It's Internet marketing training center of Virginia. And even though it's from it's in Virginia you can be anywhere in the world and study online with us. Now also I don't want you to get robbed in you or your family's quest for higher education. So be sure to watch the Higher Education webinar at screwthecommute.com click on free webinars and be prepared to be mad to see the kinds of things colleges and universities are doing to the young people in this world. So check that out.

[00:02:28] All right. Let's get to the main event. Jo Hausman is here. She's an inspirational speaker and coach. She's an international live radio talk show host and a bestselling author. She speaks and coaches others to move to greatness in their life. Jo wrote and published a book called go for it a woman's guide to perseverance the passion she has comes from empowering others to live in a positive life. She has appeared on numerous television radio blogs and podcasts around the world. She's currently a contributing blogger to Huffington Post.com and her international live radio show airs live every Thursday morning 10:00 a.m. U.S. Central Time that is on Voice America business. Jo are you ready to screw. The commute. It's been forever hasn't it. Oh almost a week.

[00:03:33] Yeah it feels like forever doesn't it.

[00:03:37] So tell everybody what you've been doing and your story.

[00:03:42] Oh my gosh. Hey I just wanna thank you again for coming on my show last week. What a phenomenal time we had. Gave great information. I love my international life syndicated radio show. It brings together brings me together with some awesome guests like yourself Tom. And it just goes internationally. It's all over the world. So it's a really a lot of fun. You know I think back to when I was in seventh eighth grade you know I wanted to be a radio deejay. I did. That is interesting. Well little did I know they didn't get paid much money. So when I grew up I think you know I went off to college and I know we'll talk about that later. But it's I realize that I don't want to go into communications because I didn't make very much money. So you know what I do. I go into human services social work because they make in less.

[00:04:32] Oh yeah. They rack up the bucks.

[00:04:36] Rack up the student debt you know not even make as much.

[00:04:39] That's what I'm talking about with our sponsor.

[00:04:41] Yeah. All right. So I had to learn the hard way unfortunately. But as life goes on and life transpires I was a young mom right out of college I was married for a couple of years. But young mom and then I was a single mom for many years met and married a wonderful man. And then unfortunately he passed away in 2010. And then my son went off to college a month later. So then I was trying to figure out what the heck I was going to do with my life and what you know. Because I had I had run a very successful virtual system business up until that point and loved working from home. But at that point a lot of things happened that I needed to change my direction. So I went back to college I got my master's degree. However thankfully I don't have any student loan from that. But also I wrote a book and my son had come home from college and said mom we should write a book you know and I'm like yeah maybe maybe not. I know I had known a bunch of people that wrote books but thankfully I did. I listened to that intuition and I went and wrote the book and from there I went speaking around the country because as a virtual assistant I used to travel with my clients because they are a lot of them are speakers and I was so in the back of the room for them. But I always said I want to be up on stage like they are. I'm just as good as they are. I can do that. So I'm always like how do I do that. I want to do that. How do I do that. It's the same thing with the live radio show same thing with the book. Same thing with just speaking across the country as I always do that I'm always trying to work outside the box and work different avenues to my business. So that's how I got to be where I met today.

[00:06:23] All right. Did you say you said on one sentence there that my son said let's write a book. And then you said it was my intuition that said write a book which was it.

[00:06:34] Sorry it was my son. I didn't do it right away. I waited two years maybe two three years after that and he is part of the book. He wrote the foreword to the book and then his and I picture is on the back of the book.

[00:06:52] Was he involved in your business now.

[00:06:54] No. He's getting married in six months and he's involved with that right now.

[00:07:01] Well it doesn't take any work does it.

[00:07:05] Well I think it does. He's got a really good job. Sales.

[00:07:09] Yeah I know you said you had a virtual assistant business but did you have any kind of jobs before that.

[00:07:18] Oh yeah. I work for the state. I did. So I did Social Security disability claims after I did social work for just a short amount of time and then I went Social Security disability claims and I did that for 10 years and then I worked in mortgages and was a realtor and doing those type of things that kind of went back and forth between mortgages and real estate for a while. But as when I was working in the mortgage industry that I learned about virtual systems by fact I went to a couple seminars and one of them I believe you're at speaking but other ones. And I was riding home on an airplane reading a book by a female entrepreneur and a gal across the aisle from me said Hey do you know the author of that book. And I'm like I look at her and like oh yeah I just I just bought her book at this event. I was at school as well as at the same event because I'm her virtual assistant. Oh shut the front door. That's what I want to be so low and behold that's where I ended up for 10 years of my life.

[00:08:15] So that was just cold turkey. That day you called it said I'm not coming next day or that you plan for this exit from the working world.

[00:08:24] You know it's really funny because as a mortgage professional I was commission only.

[00:08:30] So if You left nobody knows the difference.

[00:08:33] Right. And I actually work there still full time for nine months. Oh I work in my business part time at night and my late husband. He was still alive. Then he goes Do you realize you're basically paying them to go work for them the mortgage company and go. I know because it was all the way across town took me like a half hour to get to work one day and I was really frustrated and he goes you realize that right. And I'm like but I really like the people I work with. And you know I do maybe have a potential closing at the end of the month goes. You realize you're paying them to go work there. So you know I'm kind of thick headed sometimes and I'm kind of like sometimes it takes me a while to get it through my head and then my virtual assistant business I start pouring more into it to the point that I was actually bringing that to to my more because and my mortgage office I had a closed door door. So I just brought my virtual assistant business there was making good money. As long as they looked like I was making phone calls and doing stuff on my computer they thought I was all good.

[00:09:37] Oh well I'm not sure I want to advise everybody to try that.

[00:09:42] Oh yeah. I don't advise people to do that because you could be fired.

[00:09:47] Well maybe that's the you know most people have gotten fired or laid off. I mean virtually everyone in many years of me doing this is that it's the best thing that ever happened to me. So maybe you should go try to get burnt everybody. Yeah. This will be screw the commute. Screw the boss screw the boss's mother who runs the company. You'll get fired you can for sure. I guarantee you. All right. All right. So. So what would you tell after looking back at this. Somebody that's thinking about I want to start a business but I'm afraid that what kind of tips would you give them. They want to get out of that dreaded J O B.

[00:10:32] And what I went did it and I look back on my life when I started it. I had it. You know I had still make money for the family because I you know we're a two income family at that point. So that is why I stuck with a mortgage job because there is always a potential of a closing which I did have some closings there and I was making OK money but so but until my income and I had a goal to how many clients or how much income I was going to get from my virtual assistant business before I started it. And that's when I surpassed that Then I said OK now I'm going to just go for it and I'm going to quit. And so I gave my two week notice and I didn't even think I made it two weeks I said you know I got to go. I'm. And I finally did fess up to the boss what I was doing. He kind of chuckled about the time but he didn't like it very well and I said that you have to realize that you know if you see me bringing that stuff and we had that kind of relationship that I could I could tell him that. And he actually advised me that the best thing for me to do is go home and work that business. That's where your passion is. That's where you know you thrive in. So go home and do it. And that's exactly what I did. I quit. I think my last day was like on a Wednesday and that night I was working my business from home and the next day I set my hours and away I went.

[00:11:44] Yeah. And the way I kind of say that is that when I help people I want them I want to make it too expensive for them to go to work anymore because they're side hustle or side business is starting to take over. They keep their bills paid. They don't do anything crazy rash but the best they can. But you do have to work it. It's going to get harder than it is easier if you stay in a job in work in your business in the evenings and weekends. You got to cut out the TV. You got to cut out a lot of things but eventually you'll be able to get rid of that dreaded J O B.

[00:12:23] And what I did was when I was working at night I told because my son was middle school then and so a lot of my friends always like to go to the activities at the school and I said I will only go to the ones that he is involved with. I'm not going to any outside games nothing that doesn't pertain to my son because I have to give this my full potential and my full attention. And that's exactly what I did and it worked beautifully. It was hard to do is hard to tell them no at the beginning but they understood. They you know I said I'm starting to start. I'm trying to start a business here and. And it worked beautifully. So it is exactly what I did.

[00:12:56] Well I know that's perfect they're learning to say no. It's critical because I mean I've got relatives that say yes they're kind of function. And then you know they have trouble paying their bills because they're always volunteering and wanting to be this. You know you can do a lot more good with a lot of money in your business than you can volunteering for in a couple hours.

[00:13:19] Oh absolutely absolutely you can. And that's the best part. You have to be willing to say no and I like that how you say that you have to be willing to say no.

[00:13:30] Have you ever got screwed over a business and what did you do about it.

[00:13:35] Well one gal that I had as I was a virtual assistant I was probably only a year or two into it. I was at that point I was taken anybody I can because I was trying to really hone in on my skills. And this gal was very ADD. She was very attention deficit. She would call me and wants things done like A.S.A.P. A client a virtual assistant client and one Saturday I was at the mall with my mom and mom at that time we didn't get a lot of time together because of all the activities going on. So she called me and we're at an a store and she said can you get this done by 4:00 this afternoon I have to have it done has to be done right now. I'm like OK so my mom was upset and cause I was upset. Went home got it done I was done by three thirty. And I emailed her Is it OK. This is done. Never heard back from her. I didn't hear back from her until like Monday afternoon. I still hadn't heard back from her. Finally I said hey look did you get this done. And she goes Oh yeah I did. Sorry about that I'm sorry I didn't respond. And I'm like done I never fired a client before I did. I was like terrified to do it but I finally just said I have to you know you're done. I'm not dealing with you anymore. She paid me for the job we got we walked away.

[00:14:51] Yeah yeah. You got a fire them sometimes. It's not it's not a good fit.

[00:14:56] No no no. You have to determine what is a good fit for you and what's not and until you're in that situation sometimes you don't really know.

[00:15:05] So anything funny or bizarre happened while you were.

[00:15:11] Well that would be kind of a bizarre thing that happened during that time frame. I I would have I remember one client I had I was traveling with her and I got to the hotel thought she was paying for my hotel so I don't know why but I forgot my business card. My business credit card at home because I figured she had had everything and we're only there a couple of days. I get to the hotel and they go OK. Well the price would be like 250 bucks I go OK. Well you know that. Yeah she knows. No she's already checked in. You know. She never paid for your room I'm like. WHAT. So you know cell phones are just coming out then so I'm trying to call her cell phone wasn't working very good. So I finally get a hold of her she goes oh no that's not the deal. Oh well I don't have my business credit card. Again I've forgotten it at home. And yeah. So that was quite entertaining. She actually did pay for it.

[00:16:10] I just moved into her room. All right. There's the way it's going to work. Take the couch.

[00:16:17] Exactly. But I didn't have enough guts to do it back then. So I called home got the credit card number and reserved my room.

[00:16:26] Did she reimburse you.

[00:16:27] Yeah. Eventually it took her a while. Another time I will say that a client gave me a bad check and I ended up having to eat the fees at my bank. And but she did reimburse me because she had actually closed that account and she says she wrote it off a bad account. So you know there are those things.

[00:16:47] Well there's the difference between mistakes and screwing over. If people do it regularly you know you have to really put your foot down. You got to realize that your worth is better than put it up with that.

[00:16:59] Exactly. So. So what do you like best about working for yourself. Well what's the worst part.

[00:17:05] I love working for myself because I love work and set my own hours and doing you know doing what I love to do. I you know I love my radio show. I love being on podcast with you and other people. And but I also love working with clients and I love to see their minds expand and really at first when they come to me they're kind of close minded or not always close minded but they're not sure of their possibilities. Put it that way in when I get to them and really you know hone in with them what their skills are and what they're capable of doing is just how they can expand and grow it's really fun to watch it's fun. They know that they are capable and they've got the they got the umph to do it. So that part is great. I am very much a people person. So it's hard for me not to be out with people every day. I thrive on being around other people but I also like my alone time. So I kind of go back and forth on that. So I try to go to some networking events. I've I've honed it in pretty good. Now I do like one or two networking events a week plus I also sit on my city council. So that gives me enough you know one on one time.

[00:18:13] That gives you plenty of time for people to yell at you and get that balance you know. Tell everybody what kind of offerings you have. What do you help people with.

[00:18:26] Absolutely. So I help people with life coaching and I'm also speaker. So I go around the country and I speak a really about going from grief to Great and grief doesn't have to mean losing a person doesn't have to mean you know sometimes you're just losing yourself sometimes as losing a friendship or you know a job or whatever whatever grief it is to you. I hone in on that for the speaking part of it going from grief to great because I like to work on the great part of it. I don't I don't hone in on the grief so much I hone in on the greatness and what your life can look like if you really work on it and the same thing with the coaching clients is when they come to me we really work on that. But also I help business owners with media so I help them find media outlets like my radio show different podcasts or if they want to write an article or write a book and also get on some TV. So I kind of two different segments I do the life coaching and then also the media services and it works beautifully. So I kind of get this is a life go a lot hand-in-hand because a business is down. Life is usually down if life is Down. Business can be down. So I really worked with both and try to increase both things.

[00:19:42] So where do they find information all this stuff. We'll put it in a show note so they can get ahold of you.

[00:19:48] Absolutely. They can go to JoHausman.com. And then also on Facebook you can find me there at Facebook.com/coachingwithJo1.

[00:20:19] You know cause you I've heard you say quite a few times that you you know it's not Joe it's Jo I'm a female. So I've heard you say that right. So I want to tell you about a TV show in development in Hollywood called scam brigade to go after bad people scammers and so forth. And in part of that work I was experimenting with some software that's voice changing software. So you're on the phone you can't tell it's me. So so fast forward. This shows you know they're trying to sell the show in Hollywood. I'm I'm just back here working and I get on the Skype call with a video Skype call with a brand new client and every you know every time I say something. She kind of chuckles and I'm like you know it must be something funny going on in her house or something and it just goes on and on. I finally said Hey what's so funny. Came here you know laughing all the time. And she said like Oh um Mr. Antion you don't quite sound like you did when I first met you. I had left on this voice changing software and every time I said something it sounded like a girl. You know what I look like it's hard to imagine me as a girl I could see and see me on skype and hear a girl's voice coming up. So we got to take a brief break for our sponsor but when we come back. We want to ask Jo what's a typical day look like for her and how she stays motivated.

[00:22:06] We'll be right back after I up I get down on my knees begging everybody out there to to check out a particular webinar or pass it on to someone who could use it. So far down on my knees I think the dogs that I'm trying to play with them though. So please do this. It has to do with higher education. I mean if you're considering getting retrained because you hate what you're doing or maybe you've been displaced in your your job or you want a better life for yourself and your family or maybe you have kids and nephews and nieces or neighbors were wondering if they should burn up hundreds of thousands of dollars and then end up broke with mountains of debt and no marketable skills. I mean there's MBAs competing for jobs at Starbucks nowadays. So you've got to watch this webinar. I mean you have nothing to lose and everything to gain from taking a little time out and visiting screwthecommute.com and click on free webinars and watch the one on higher education. I'm telling you be prepared to be mad at some of the things these colleges are doing causing trillions of dollars of debt to our young people and bloating things even gradeinflation.com said they're inflating grade point averages to make it look like they're teaching better. And then there's mountains of evidence that says they aren't. So check that out at screwthecommute.com and click on free webinars.

[00:23:37] All right let's get back to our super-duper guest Jo Hausman is here. That's Jo with a J O it's a female. You'll be able to tell that if you're just tuning in a few minutes unless she's got a voice changing software go over there. A 400 pound guy talking to us. I've never I can't remember meeting or in person for 20 years. Who knows what she is now. She sounds like a girl. Okay. All right. So. So Jo what's a typical day look like for you. What time you get up do you exercise. You start e-mail. I mean how does that work for you on a daily basis.

[00:24:16] Absolutely. Well about a year ago I decided to change things up a little bit. I started listening to well I started getting up an hour earlier which for me is hard to do. But I decided that if I'm going to make myself better and make my life better that's what I was gonna have to do. So I get up between five and five thirty every day and I read for 30 to 60 minutes depending on what the day looks. I always have to have coffee. That's kind of like another thing of mine that I have to have coffee and I read some inspirational I always read some spiritual than inspiration in business so I kind of go between depending on what book I'm reading for that day. And then I love to kick box to be up I go kickboxing three times a week and then or else I walk or run in the morning. In the morning it almost like ninety nine percent of the time I do in the morning.

[00:25:10] A class or you have a bag at home.

[00:25:13] Both. I have a bag at home and I do it in a class. I like the class better because again I like that interaction. And we're usually with somebody else on a bag. Well your worked out so hard that you have to be hard to talk to him but yeah you are talking to your partner up with somebody and then you hit the bag and kicked the bags up. It's a really good stress reducer. Yeah yeah. And then from there depending on what my day is like I do I belong to a Toastmasters group. I love Toastmasters so I have that on Thursday mornings and along with my show after that. So I have Toastmasters on Thursdays and then my show on Thursday morning and then a normal day. I'll have depending on client load but I'll probably have three to four clients a day. And then I have meetings either for like I said I'm on city council so we'll have maybe different meetings that I have to go to. So each day is a little bit different and I like that because I don't like the same old same old. I don't like going and sitting behind a desk and that's what I do all day long. So I'm networking events one day two days a week I have networking events that I go to ones in the morning and ones at noon. So yeah it's just it's a little bit different. Depending on depending on my client load I usually have three to four clients through the day. So they're an hour long.

[00:26:48] And and they're fortunate enough that you've already taken your frustrations out on the heavy bag.

[00:26:54] They are and it's great and it's all you know I have them in all different time zones. So it just depending on what time zone they're in and what time zone I'm in like one gal is in New Zealand and we're just finishing up so you know either she goes really early in the morning and I go late at night or the next time or vice versa.

[00:27:20] I don't know if you're aware I have a site called brutal self-defense. I've been in over 100 violent encounters with bikers trying to kill me and gun fights and knife fights. And I kind of kept it on the down low for years but then when a lot of the terrorist attacks were coming and the school shootings that I need to bring this out and help people with it. So it's brutalselfdefense.com. Ok. So boy it sounds like you get a lot of play time in there that's what we we like to have time for ourselves in addition to our business. But how do you stay. It seems like this this next dumb question. How do you stay motivated. I don't know how you have time to not be motivated.

[00:28:06] Well I like you know the clients actually really motivate me. They they just with their different things that they're doing you know they're different business or I'm out there trying to find them media you know media exposure because I'll spend an hour to two hours trying to find them media exposure and that's what we're doing. If they just want to focus in on the life coaching then we'll focus in on that. I'm in the process of writing a workbook for them to really hone in on right now I give them assignments basically to do to work on and so I mean to put that into workbook and I think that will hone in on them better because even though we work one on one together sometimes they do it sometimes they don't. So but I love that. I love working with people and I love that one on one interaction. And that's why I love working with my clients.

[00:29:00] That's great. You really structured. We throw around the term lifestyle business but it sounds like you built your business and it's perfectly suited to your life style.

[00:29:11] Yeah I don't know. I never really want to deal with the grief part of it just like you know well I just move on and get to the great part of it. But in reality what I was finding is when I was just doing business coaching a lot of people had stuff going on in their life. And they had to get over that to be able to get to the business part of it. So that's why I decided. And then I was on a I was on a board of directors I'm not anymore but I was on a board of directors for a grief group and I just I didn't want to go back to those beginning days again. So that's why I really decided to hone in on the life and just really work with people who are now ready to grow themselves even better so they can grow their business even better.

[00:29:56] We got to team up with a death coach instead of a life coach and then you could just pass share the pass the business off to them on the because they're actually doing that nowadays because end of life. And the hospice type things and caregiving things I mean I was desperate at the time when my mom and dad were going south on me and I'm the baby of the family just desperate for any help on what to do. I mean it's simple. Well it's not as simple as getting my 93 year old dad to stop driving. I mean all these issues that are that are up. So so yeah it's an emerging field too. I mean my dad was he couldn't see for crap. He was like Mr. Magoo if you're old enough to remember Mr. Magoo. He's driving through the intersection and everybody else is crashing and all around that he's just motoring through there. He actually said to me one time they're young let them see me.

[00:31:01] That's funny but it's funny but it's not funny.

[00:31:05] No it wasn't at the time I was. He said he was going to kill himself kill somebody else. And I'm like trying to get the keys away.

[00:31:12] But I didn't even know there was death coach.

[00:31:17] Well I just made that up. But I mean like there's people that don't call it of course you know. Let me show you how to really get into that grave. Be proactive in it re probably not a good idea. I heard this comedian say that. Oh what's her name. I can't think of her name off hand. She said I'd be a terrible suicide hotline person. She says she should agree with the people she says is that I got a job and I'm hanging on by a string. You know. I get it.

[00:31:54] But when my mom was working at a JOB and she had this friend and they are just basically worked until retirement and there's a call center I think or something for credit cards and somebody came in and said hey I want to get your job. She goes great. Be here at 8:00 tomorrow morning you can have it you just gotta have some humor with it.

[00:32:13] So. So what kind of parting thoughts do you have with the people listeners we call our screwballs. So anybody either wants to improve their business or approve their lifestyle based around business or get out of the cubicle. What's your parting thoughts.

[00:32:29] Well you know what I tell people is start start where you're at and really start with what you know and then you can grow it from there. You know so many people get involved with like oh they got to know everything right away and you don't have to know everything right away just start going out there and I teach people just how to go out make a simple website make do simple marketing do you know just to start getting that thought process going and then grow up from there. If you have to keep your job for a little while do that. So you're not so stressed about finances but then really. Because I always want people to be bigger better bolder and stronger and they really are everybody is stronger than what they give themselves credit for. So if they could just start thinking outside the box and thinking you know about how can they make money with what they know and then really hone that into a business and it works beautifully.

[00:33:15] Great advice and you're sure living that's yourself. So thanks Jo for taking the time to be on the show today. Great insights for our screwballs. And check out everything Jo has to offer. We'll have links in our show notes and also download our new app. So you'll be able to get through the show notes right from your phone and we have very extensive ones. We'll have links to all of her stuff. And for everybody this has been episode 69 screwthecommute.com/69 will take you directly to the show notes and hey give us a shout out on or view or thumbs up or whatever they do over at iTunes. We really appreciate it. You don't know how. We have instructions for you at screwthecommute.com. Okay everybody catch ya on the next episode.

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